S-SCAM, a rare copy number variation gene, induces schizophrenia-related endophenotypes in transgenic mouse model.

Accumulating genetic evidence suggests that schizophrenia (SZ) is associated with individually rare copy number variations (CNVs) of diverse genes, often specific to single cases. However, the causality of these rare mutations remains unknown. One of the rare CNVs found in SZ cohorts is the duplication of Synaptic Scaffolding Molecule (S-SCAM, also called MAGI-2), which encodes a postsynaptic scaffolding protein controlling synaptic AMPA receptor levels, and thus the strength of excitatory synaptic transmission. Here we report that, in a transgenic mouse model simulating the duplication conditions, elevation of S-SCAM levels in excitatory neurons of the forebrain was sufficient to induce multiple SZ-related endophenotypes. S-SCAM transgenic mice showed an increased number of lateral ventricles and a reduced number of parvalbumin-stained neurons. In addition, the mice exhibited SZ-like behavioral abnormalities, including hyperlocomotor activity, deficits in prepulse inhibition, increased anxiety, impaired social interaction, and working memory deficit. Notably, the S-SCAM transgenic mice showed a unique sex difference in showing these behavioral symptoms, which is reminiscent of human conditions. These behavioral abnormalities were accompanied by hyperglutamatergic function associated with increased synaptic AMPA receptor levels and impaired long-term potentiation. Importantly, reducing glutamate release by the group 2 metabotropic glutamate receptor agonist LY379268 ameliorated the working memory deficits in the transgenic mice, suggesting that hyperglutamatergic function underlies the cognitive functional deficits. Together, these results contribute to validate a causal relationship of the rare S-SCAM CNV and provide supporting evidence for the rare CNV hypothesis in SZ pathogenesis. Furthermore, the S-SCAM transgenic mice provide a valuable new animal model for studying SZ pathogenesis.

S-SCAM/MAGI-2 is an essential synaptic scaffolding molecule for the GluA2-containing maintenance pool of AMPA receptors.

Synaptic plasticity, the cellular basis of learning and memory, involves the dynamic trafficking of AMPA receptors (AMPARs) into and out of synapses. One of the remaining key unanswered aspects of AMPAR trafficking is the mechanism by which synaptic strength is preserved despite protein turnover. In particular, the identity of AMPAR scaffolding molecule(s) involved in the maintenance of GluA2-containing AMPARs is completely unknown. Here we report that the synaptic scaffolding molecule (S-SCAM; also called membrane-associated guanylate kinase inverted-2 and atrophin interacting protein-1) plays the critical role of maintaining synaptic strength. Increasing S-SCAM levels in rat hippocampal neurons led to specific increases in the surface AMPAR levels, enhanced AMPAR-mediated synaptic transmission, and enlargement of dendritic spines, without significantly effecting GluN levels or NMDA receptor (NMDAR) EPSC. Conversely, decreasing S-SCAM levels by RNA interference-mediated knockdown caused the loss of synaptic AMPARs, which was followed by a severe reduction in the dendritic spine density. Importantly, S-SCAM regulated synaptic AMPAR levels in a manner, dependent on GluA2 not GluA1, sensitive to N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion protein interaction, and independent of activity. Further, S-SCAM increased surface AMPAR levels in the absence of PSD-95, while PSD-95 was dependent on S-SCAM to increase surface AMPAR levels. Finally, S-SCAM overexpression hampered NMDA-induced internalization of AMPARs and prevented the induction of long term-depression, while S-SCAM knockdown did not. Together, these results suggest that S-SCAM is an essential AMPAR scaffolding molecule for the GluA2-containing pool of AMPARs, which are involved in the constitutive pathway of maintaining synaptic strength.

Rapid multiplex reverse transcription-PCR typing of influenza A and B virus, and subtyping of influenza A virus into H1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, N1 (human), N1 (animal), N2, and N7, including typing of novel swine origin influenza A (H1N1) virus, during the 2009 outbreak in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

A large outbreak of novel influenza A (H1N1) virus (swine origin influenza virus [S-OIV]) infection in Milwaukee, WI, occurred in late April 2009. We had recently developed a rapid multiplex reverse transcription-PCR enzyme hybridization assay (FluPlex) to determine the type (A or B) and subtype (H1, H2, H3, H5, H7, H9, N1 [human], N1 [animal], N2, or N7) of influenza viruses, and this assay was used to confirm the diagnoses for the first infected patients in the state. The analytical sensitivity was excellent at 1.5 to 116 copies/reaction, or 10(-3) to 10(-1) 50% tissue culture infective doses/ml. The testing of all existing hemagglutinin and neuraminidase subtypes of influenza A virus and influenza B virus (41 influenza virus strains) and 24 common respiratory pathogens showed only one low-level H3 cross-reaction with an H10N7 avian strain and only at 5.2 x 10(6) copies/reaction, not at lower concentrations. Comparisons of the FluPlex results with results from multiple validated in-house molecular assays, CDC-validated FDA-approved assays, and gene sequencing demonstrated 100% positive agreement for the typing of 179 influenza A viruses and 3 influenza B viruses, the subtyping of 110 H1N1 (S-OIV; N1 [animal]), 62 H1N1 (human), and 6 H3N2 (human) viruses, and the identification of 24 negative clinical samples and 100% negative agreement for all viruses tested except H1N1 (human) (97.7%). The small number of false-positive H1N1 (human) samples most likely represent increased sensitivity over that of other in-house assays, with four of four results confirmed by the CDC's influenza virus subtyping assay. The FluPlex is a rapid, inexpensive, sensitive, and specific method for the typing and subtyping of influenza viruses and demonstrated outstanding utility during the first 2 weeks of an S-OIV infection outbreak. Methods for rapid detection and broad subtyping of influenza viruses, including animal subtypes, are needed to address public concern over the emergence of pandemic strains. Attempts to automate this assay are ongoing.

Role of TARP interaction in S-SCAM-mediated regulation of AMPA receptors.

Scaffolding proteins are involved in the incorporation, anchoring, maintenance, and removal of AMPA receptors (AMPARs) at synapses, either through a direct interaction with AMPARs or via indirect association through auxiliary subunits of transmembrane AMPAR regulatory proteins (TARPs). Synaptic scaffolding molecule (S-SCAM) is a newly characterized member of the scaffolding proteins critical for the regulation and maintenance of AMPAR levels at synapses, and directly binds to TARPs through a PDZ interaction. However, the functional significance of S-SCAM-TARP interaction in the regulation of AMPARs has not been tested. Here we show that overexpression of the C-terminal peptide of TARP-γ2 fused to EGFP abolished the S-SCAM-mediated enhancement of surface GluA2 expression. Conversely, the deletion of the PDZ-5 domain of S-SCAM that binds TARPs greatly attenuated the S-SCAM-induced increase of surface GluA2 expression. In contrast, the deletion of the guanylate kinase domain of S-SCAM did not show a significant effect on the regulation of AMPARs. Together, these results suggest that S-SCAM is regulating AMPARs through TARPs.

Simultaneous Detection of CDC Category "A" DNA and RNA Bioterrorism Agents by Use of Multiplex PCR & RT-PCR Enzyme Hybridization Assays.

Assays to simultaneously detect multiple potential agents of bioterrorism are limited. Two multiplex PCR and RT-PCR enzyme hybridization assays (mPCR-EHA, mRT-PCR-EHA) were developed to simultaneously detect many of the CDC category "A" bioterrorism agents. The "Bio T" DNA assay was developed to detect: Variola major (VM), Bacillus anthracis (BA), Yersinia pestis (YP), Francisella tularensis (FT) and Varicella zoster virus (VZV). The "Bio T" RNA assay (mRT-PCR-EHA) was developed to detect: Ebola virus (Ebola), Lassa fever virus (Lassa), Rift Valley fever (RVF), Hantavirus Sin Nombre species (HSN) and dengue virus (serotypes 1-4). Sensitivity and specificity of the 2 assays were tested by using genomic DNA, recombinant plasmid positive controls, RNA transcripts controls, surrogate (spiked) clinical samples and common respiratory pathogens. The analytical sensitivity (limit of detection (LOD)) of the DNA asssay for genomic DNA was 1x10(0)~1x10(2) copies/mL for BA, FT and YP. The LOD for VZV whole organism was 1x10(-2) TCID(50)/mL. The LOD for recombinant controls ranged from 1x10(2)~1x10(3)copies/mL for BA, FT, YP and VM. The RNA assay demonstrated LOD for RNA transcript controls of 1x10(4)~1x10(6) copies/mL without extraction and 1x10(5)~1x10(6) copies/mL with extraction for Ebola, RVF, Lassa and HSN. The LOD for dengue whole organisms was ~1x10(-4) dilution for dengue 1 and 2, 1x10(4) LD(50)/mL and 1x10(2) LD(50)/mL for dengue 3 and 4. The LOD without extraction for recombinant plasmid DNA controls was ~1x10(3) copies/mL (1.5 input copies/reaction) for Ebola, RVF, Lassa and HSN. No cross-reactivity of primers and probes used in both assays was detected with common respiratory pathogens or between targeted analytes. Clinical sensitivity was estimated using 264 surrogate clinical samples tested with the BioT DNA assay and 549 samples tested with the BioT RNA assay. The clinical specificity is 99.6% and 99.8% for BioT DNA assay and BioT RNA assay, respectively. The surrogate sensitivities of these two assays were 100% (95%CI 83-100) for FT, BA (pX02), YP, VM, VZV, dengue 2,3,4 and 95% (95%CI 75-100) for BA (pX01) and dengue 1 using spiked clinical specimens. The specificity of both BioT multiplex assays on spiked specimens was 100% (95% CI 99-100). Compared to other available assays (culture, serology, PCR, etc.) both the BioT DNA mPCR-EHA and BioT RNA mRT-PCR-EHA are rapid, sensitive and specific assays for detecting many category "A" Bioterrorism agents using a standard thermocycler.

The Influenza Primer Design Resource: a new tool for translating influenza sequence data into effective diagnostics.

BACKGROUND: Recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza and multiple occurrences of zoonotic infection and deaths in humans have sparked a dramatic increase in influenza research. In order to rapidly identify and help prevent future influenza outbreaks, numerous laboratories around the world are working to develop new nucleotide-based diagnostics for identifying and subtyping influenza viruses. While there are several databases that have been developed for manipulating the vast amount of influenza genetic data that have been produced, significant progress can still be made in developing tools for translating the genetic data into effective diagnostics. DESCRIPTION: The Influenza Primer Design Resource (IPDR) is the combination of a comprehensive database of influenza nucleotide sequences and a web interface that provides several important tools that aid in the development of oligonucleotides that may be used to develop better diagnostics. IPDR's database can be searched using a variety of criteria, allowing the user to align the subset of influenza sequences that they are interested in. In addition, IPDR reports a consensus sequence for the alignment along with sequence polymorphism information, a summary of most published primers and probes that match the consensus sequence, and a Primer3 analysis of potential primers and probes that could be used for amplifying the sequence subset. CONCLUSIONS: The IPDR is a unique combination of bioinformatics tools that will greatly aid researchers in translating influenza genetic data into diagnostics, which can effectively identify and subtype influenza strains. The website is freely available at http://www.ipdr.mcw.edu.