TY - JOUR
T1 - Autistic-like behaviour and cerebellar dysfunction in Purkinje cell Tsc1 mutant mice
AU - Tsai, Peter T.
AU - Hull, Court
AU - Chu, Yunxiang
AU - Greene-Colozzi, Emily
AU - Sadowski, Abbey R.
AU - Leech, Jarrett M.
AU - Steinberg, Jason
AU - Crawley, Jacqueline N.
AU - Regehr, Wade G.
AU - Sahin, Mustafa
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements We thank G. Corfas, M. Fagiolini, P. Rosenberg, S. Goldman and the Neurodevelopmental Behavioral Core of Boston Children’s Hospital for assistance with behavioural experiments. We are grateful to C. Walsh, L. Benowitz and members of the Sahin laboratory for critical reading of the manuscript, and to M. Gregas for advice regarding statistical analysis. P.T.T. received support from the Developmental Neurology Training grant (T32 NS007473), American Academy of Neurology, and the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation. This work and M.S. are supported in part by the NationalInstitutesofHealth(NIH;grantR01 NS58956),the JohnMerck ScholarsFund, Autism Speaks, the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation, Boston Children’s Hospital Translational Research Program, Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research and Boston Children’s Hospital Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (grant P30 HD18655). J.N.C. is supported by the Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health. W.G.R. is supported by the NIH (grant R01NS032405)andtheSimonsFoundation(grantSFARI232304).Y.X.C. issupported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Medical Research Fellowship.
PY - 2012/8/30
Y1 - 2012/8/30
N2 - Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are highly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders, but the underlying pathogenesis remains poorly understood. Recent studies have implicated the cerebellum in these disorders, with post-mortem studies in ASD patients showing cerebellar Purkinje cell (PC) loss, and isolated cerebellar injury has been associated with a higher incidence of ASDs. However, the extent of cerebellar contribution to the pathogenesis of ASDs remains unclear. Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a genetic disorder with high rates of comorbid ASDs that result from mutation of either TSC1 or TSC2, whose protein products dimerize and negatively regulate mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling. TSC is an intriguing model to investigate the cerebellar contribution to the underlying pathogenesis of ASDs, as recent studies in TSC patients demonstrate cerebellar pathology and correlate cerebellar pathology with increased ASD symptomatology. Functional imaging also shows that TSC patients with ASDs display hypermetabolism in deep cerebellar structures, compared to TSC patients without ASDs. However, the roles of Tsc1 and the sequelae of Tsc1 dysfunction in the cerebellum have not been investigated so far. Here we show that both heterozygous and homozygous loss of Tsc1 in mouse cerebellar PCs results in autistic-like behaviours, including abnormal social interaction, repetitive behaviour and vocalizations, in addition to decreased PC excitability. Treatment of mutant mice with the mTOR inhibitor, rapamycin, prevented the pathological and behavioural deficits. These findings demonstrate new roles for Tsc1 in PC function and define a molecular basis for a cerebellar contribution to cognitive disorders such as autism.
AB - Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are highly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders, but the underlying pathogenesis remains poorly understood. Recent studies have implicated the cerebellum in these disorders, with post-mortem studies in ASD patients showing cerebellar Purkinje cell (PC) loss, and isolated cerebellar injury has been associated with a higher incidence of ASDs. However, the extent of cerebellar contribution to the pathogenesis of ASDs remains unclear. Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a genetic disorder with high rates of comorbid ASDs that result from mutation of either TSC1 or TSC2, whose protein products dimerize and negatively regulate mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling. TSC is an intriguing model to investigate the cerebellar contribution to the underlying pathogenesis of ASDs, as recent studies in TSC patients demonstrate cerebellar pathology and correlate cerebellar pathology with increased ASD symptomatology. Functional imaging also shows that TSC patients with ASDs display hypermetabolism in deep cerebellar structures, compared to TSC patients without ASDs. However, the roles of Tsc1 and the sequelae of Tsc1 dysfunction in the cerebellum have not been investigated so far. Here we show that both heterozygous and homozygous loss of Tsc1 in mouse cerebellar PCs results in autistic-like behaviours, including abnormal social interaction, repetitive behaviour and vocalizations, in addition to decreased PC excitability. Treatment of mutant mice with the mTOR inhibitor, rapamycin, prevented the pathological and behavioural deficits. These findings demonstrate new roles for Tsc1 in PC function and define a molecular basis for a cerebellar contribution to cognitive disorders such as autism.
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U2 - 10.1038/nature11310
DO - 10.1038/nature11310
M3 - Article
C2 - 22763451
AN - SCOPUS:84865508373
SN - 0028-0836
VL - 488
SP - 647
EP - 651
JO - Nature
JF - Nature
IS - 7413
ER -