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Buckley, N. J.

Publications and source records attributed to Buckley, N. J..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

iPSC-Astrocyte morphology reflects patient clinical markers

Human iPSCs provide powerful cellular models of Alzheimers disease (AD) and offer many advantages over non-human models, including the potential to reflect variation in individual-specific pathophysiology and clinical symptoms Previous studies have demonstrated that iPSC-neurons from individuals with Alzheimers disease (AD) reflect clinical markers, including {beta}-amyloid (A{beta}) levels and synaptic vulnerability. However, despite neuronal loss being a key hallmark of AD pathology, many risk genes are predominantly expressed in glia, highlighting them as potential therapeutic targets. In this work iPSC-derived astrocytes were generated from a cohort of individuals with high versus low levels of the inflammatory marker YKL-40, in their cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). iPSC-derived astrocytes were treated with exogenous A{beta} oligomers and high content imaging demonstrated a correlation between astrocytes that underwent the greatest morphology change from patients with low levels of CSF-YKL-40 and more protective APOE genotypes. This finding was subsequently verified using similarity learning as an unbiased approach. This study shows that iPSC-derived astrocytes from AD patients reflect key aspects of the pathophysiological phenotype of those same patients, thereby offering a novel means of modelling AD, stratifying AD patients and conducting therapeutic screens. Graphical Abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=93 SRC="FIGDIR/small/548687v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (24K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1df3486org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@f184d8org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@48a33dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@d53a90_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

neuroscience↗

Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol negatively regulates neurite outgrowth and Akt signaling in hiPSC-derived cortical neurons.

Endocannabinoids regulate different aspects of neurodevelopment. In utero exposure to the exogenous psychoactive cannabinoid {Delta}9-tetrahydrocannabinol ({Delta}9-THC), has been linked with abnormal cortical development in animal models. However, much less is known about the actions of endocannabinoids in human neurons. Here we investigated the effect of the endogenous endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2AG) and {Delta}9-THC on the development of neuronal morphology and activation of signaling kinases, in cortical glutamatergic neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). Our data indicate that the cannabinoid type 1 receptor (CB1R), but not the cannabinoid 2 receptor (CB2R), GPR55 or TRPV1 receptors, is expressed in young, immature hiPSC-derived cortical neurons. Consistent with previous reports, 2AG and {Delta}9-THC negatively regulated neurite outgrowth. Interestingly, acute exposure to both 2AG and {Delta}9-THC inhibited phosphorylation of serine/threonine kinase extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases (ERK1/2), whereas {Delta}9-THC also reduced phosphorylation of Akt (aka PKB). Moreover, the CB1R inverse agonist SR 141716A attenuated the negative regulation of neurite outgrowth and ERK1/2 phosphorylation induced by 2AG and {Delta}9-THC. Taken together, our data suggest that hiPSC-derived cortical neurons express CB1Rs and are responsive to both endogenous and exogenous cannabinoids. Thus, hiPSC-neurons may represent a good cellular model for investigating the role of the endocannabinoid system in regulating cellular processes in human neurons.

neuroscience↗