Understanding the contribution of cortical interneuron dysfunction to schizophrenia

了解皮质中间神经元功能障碍对精神分裂症的影响

• 批准号: MR/S010785/1
• 负责人: Oscar Marin
• 金额: $ 260.8万
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FS010785%2F1
• 关键词: Understanding; contribution; cortical; interneuron; dysfunction

Psychiatric disorders represent the leading source of disease burden in the developed world for people between ages 15 and 49. In contrast to heart disease or most forms of cancer, diseases such as autism or schizophrenia begin early in life and contribute to lifelong incapacity or reduced longevity. Consequently, psychiatric disorders are a great public health challenge. Current medications for most psychiatric disorders are merely palliative, largely because of our limited understanding of their causes. Schizophrenia is a complex developmental brain disorder with three main clusters of symptoms: (i) positive (psychosis, delusions and hallucinations), (ii) negative (reduced motivation and social withdrawal), and (iii) cognitive (memory and executive function deficits). Antipsychotic drugs control positive symptoms in some patients, but are ineffective in many, have a modest impact on negative symptoms, and fail to improve cognitive deficits. Consequently, the development of new therapies is an urgent unmet need.Multiple lines of evidence suggest that schizophrenia is a disorder of brain development caused by a combination of genetic factors and environmental stressors. Although advances in recent years have massively increased our understanding of genetic and environmental risks, we do not know how these factors converge during development to disrupt the function of specific brain circuits. In this context, the development of animal models for testing specific hypotheses on the mechanisms underlying schizophrenia is crucial, because achieving the required level of resolution in human studies is currently unfeasible.In this project, we aim to investigate how genetic and/or environmental disruption of the development of inhibitory circuits in the cerebral cortex may lead to the functional and behavioural alterations associated to schizophrenia. Our proposed research has three objectives:In Aim 1, we will investigate neural circuit abnormalities that may link different schizophrenia symptoms. It has been often assumed that different symptoms in schizophrenia may arise through independent alterations in different brain functions. We will carry out experiments to test the hypothesis that at least two of the main clusters of symptoms observed in schizophrenia might be caused by disruption of cortical inhibitory circuits. In Aim 2, we will analyse how cannabis use may impact the function of some of the cortical inhibitory circuits that are known to be particularly susceptible to pathological gene variation linked to schizophrenia. We will carry out these experiments in different developmental windows, which will allow testing how developmental timing influences pathological traits.In Aim 3, we will systematically explore gene networks linked to schizophrenia and probe their convergence on specific cortical inhibitory circuits. We will carry out bioinformatic and functional analyses to study genes whose variation has been linked to schizophrenia in humans and are expressed by specific populations of interneurons during the period that these cells develop their connections in the cerebral cortex.Identifying the neural circuits that are disrupted by pathological gene variation and environmental factors in schizophrenia is a fundamental step towards the development of novel therapeutical interventions that target the biological substrates of the disorder.

精神障碍是发达国家15至49岁人群疾病负担的主要来源。与心脏病或大多数形式的癌症相反，自闭症或精神分裂症等疾病开始于生命的早期，并导致终身残疾或寿命缩短。因此，精神疾病是一个巨大的公共卫生挑战。目前治疗大多数精神疾病的药物仅仅是治标不治本，主要是因为我们对病因的了解有限。精神分裂症是一种复杂的发育性脑障碍，具有三种主要症状群：（i）阳性（精神病、妄想和幻觉），（ii）阴性（动机降低和社交退缩）和（iii）认知（记忆和执行功能缺陷）。抗精神病药物在一些患者中控制阳性症状，但在许多患者中无效，对阴性症状有适度的影响，并且不能改善认知缺陷。因此，开发新的治疗方法是一个迫切的未满足的需求。多方面的证据表明，精神分裂症是一种由遗传因素和环境压力共同引起的大脑发育障碍。尽管近年来的进展极大地提高了我们对遗传和环境风险的了解，但我们不知道这些因素如何在发育过程中聚集以扰乱特定大脑回路的功能。在这种情况下，动物模型的发展，以测试具体的假设精神分裂症的机制是至关重要的，因为达到所需的分辨率水平，在人类studies是目前不可行的，在这个项目中，我们的目标是调查如何遗传和/或环境破坏的发展抑制电路在大脑皮层可能导致的功能和行为的改变与精神分裂症。我们提出的研究有三个目标：在目标1中，我们将研究可能与不同精神分裂症症状相关的神经回路异常。人们常常认为，精神分裂症的不同症状可能是由于不同脑功能的独立改变而引起的。我们将进行实验来验证这样一个假设，即在精神分裂症中观察到的至少两组主要症状可能是由皮层抑制回路的中断引起的。在目标2中，我们将分析大麻的使用如何影响一些皮质抑制回路的功能，这些回路已知特别容易受到与精神分裂症相关的病理基因变异的影响。我们将在不同的发育窗口中进行这些实验，这将允许测试发育时间如何影响病理特征。在目标3中，我们将系统地探索与精神分裂症相关的基因网络，并探测它们在特定皮层抑制回路上的会聚。我们将进行生物信息学和功能分析，以研究与人类精神分裂症相关的基因变异，并在这些细胞在大脑皮层中形成连接的过程中由特定的中间神经元群体表达。确定精神分裂症中被病理基因变异和环境因素破坏的神经回路是开发新的治疗干预措施的基本步骤针对疾病的生物学基础。

项目成果

Subcellular sorting of neuregulins controls the assembly of excitatory-inhibitory cortical circuits.

• DOI: 10.7554/elife.57000
• 发表时间: 2020-12-15
• 期刊: eLife
• 影响因子: 7.7
• 作者: Exposito-Alonso D;Osório C;Bernard C;Pascual-García S;Del Pino I;Marín O;Rico B
• 通讯作者: Rico B

Cortical wiring by synapse type-specific control of local protein synthesis

• DOI: 10.1126/science.abm7466
• 发表时间: 2022-11-25
• 期刊: SCIENCE
• 影响因子: 56.9
• 作者: Bernard, Clemence;Exposito-Alonso, David;Marin, Oscar
• 通讯作者: Marin, Oscar

Mechanisms Underlying Circuit Dysfunction in Neurodevelopmental Disorders

神经发育障碍中回路功能障碍的潜在机制

• DOI: 10.1146/annurev-genet-072820-023642
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Annual Review of Genetics
• 影响因子: 11.1
• 作者: Exposito-Alonso D

Single-Nuclei RNA Sequencing of 5 Regions of the Human Prenatal Brain Implicates Developing Neuron Populations in Genetic Risk for Schizophrenia.

• DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.06.033
• 发表时间: 2023-01-15
• 期刊: Biological psychiatry
• 影响因子: 10.6