Distinct sets of genetic defects in a single neuronal protein can lead either to infantile epilepsy or to autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), depending on whether the respective mutations boost the protein’s function or sabotage it, according to a new study by UC San Francisco researchers.
Distinct sets of genetic defects in a single neuronal protein can lead either to infantile epilepsy or to autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), depending on whether the respective mutations boost the protein’s function or sabotage it, according to a new study by UC San Francisco researchers. Tracing how these particular genetic defects lead to more general changes in brain function could unlock fundamental mysteries about how events early in brain development lead to autism, the authors say.
The findings are a first step towards understanding how different subtle changes in neural function in utero could lead to the development of either a seizure-prone brain or an autistic brain in infancy. The study also further implicates the gene responsible for these changes, SCN2A, as the single human gene with the strongest evidence for a causal role in ASDs.
Prof. Matthew W. State, MD, PhD, first discovered the link between autism and SCN2A: “In autism research, understanding why mutations in a single gene can lead not only to ASDs, but to a wide range of other neurodevelopment disorders has emerged as a central question for the field. This new work provides critical clues that begin to unravel this mystery and could serve as a molecular ‘Rosetta Stone’ to illuminate autism pathology.”
The advent of whole-exome genome sequencing and the amassing of large, well-defined study populations such as the Simons Simplex Collection (SC) and the research cohorts assembled by the Autism Sequencing Consortium (ASC), have allowed researchers to make tremendous progress in recent years in identifying genetic risk factors for autism, said Sanders: “In the past four years we’ve gone from not really knowing how to find autism genes to having a long list of mutations linked to the disorder.”
As a graduate student and postdoctoral researcher at Yale University working in State’s lab, Sanders led collaborations that searched for autism-linked genetic mutations by conducting large whole-exome genomic screens of more than 4,000 autistic children and their families participating in the SSC and ASC consortia. In studies published in 2012, 2014, and 2015, State, Sanders and collaborators found that de novo genetic mutations – spontaneous mutations not inherited from parents – play a role in the development of ASDs in at least 20% of all cases of autism, many more than previously recognized.
These studies led to the identification of 65 genes with a strong likelihood of contributing to autism when mutated and implicated SCN2A as the human gene with the second strongest evidence for a causal role in driving ASDs. Analyses of additional SCN2A mutations In the current paper, confirm this result and elevate SCN2A to the single strongest case for a genetic driver of ASD.
Autism-associated SCN2A mutations impede signaling in the developing brain. SCN2A was in fact one of the first ASD-associated genes to be discovered. It encodes a sodium channel protein called NaV1.2 that is crucial to neurons’ ability to communicate electrically, especially during early brain development.
In addition to its strong association with autism, SCN2A had also previously been implicated in epilepsy. Bender’s team measured how 12 SCN2A mutations observed in children with ASD affected the electrical properties of NaV1.2 channels in cultured human cells in the lab. As predicted, based on the mutations’ location on the protein, all 12 reduced the function of the sodium channel, but in a variety of different ways, ranging from stopping the channel from being made at all to simply blocking the pore through which sodium needs to flow for the channel to function.
The researchers used this data to inform computer models of how the various channel mutations seen in children with ASD – as well as previously studied mutations seen in babies with infantile seizures – would impact the signaling properties of brain cells. They found that unlike mutations observed in patients with infantile seizures, which made model neurons more excitable, the mutations seen in children with ASD made it much harder for model neurons to send electrical signals.
Additional simulations of the effects of NaV1.2 defects on immature versus mature neurons indicated that autism-associated mutations would only have a major impact in the developing brain – since neurons transition away from relying on NaV1.2 channels as they mature – a finding consistent with the idea that the neurological changes that trigger in autism occur early in the womb or before one year of age, as previously proposed by Bender, Sanders and colleagues.
A key next step, the researchers say, is understanding whether the severity of autism and developmental delay can be predicted by the specific SCN2A mutation a patient has, research that will require close collaboration between scientists and families affected by these mutations.
http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2017/01/405631/autism-researchers-discover-genetic-rosetta-stone
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