Shape deformation analysis reveals the temporal dynamics of cell-type-specific homeostatic and pathogenic responses to mutant huntingtin

• Published in: eLife Vol. 10
• Main Authors: Megret, Lucile, Gris, Barbara, Sasidharan Nair, Satish, Cevost, Jasmin, Wertz, Mary, Aaronson, Jeff, Rosinski, Jim, Vogt, Thomas F, Wilkinson, Hilary, Heiman, Myriam, Neri, Christian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England eLife Science Publications, Ltd 23.02.2021; eLife Sciences Publications Ltd; eLife Sciences Publication; eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
• Subjects: Age; Analysis; Animal models; Animals; Astrocytes; Autopsy; C. elegans; Cellular Biology; Computational and Systems Biology; Computational neuroscience; Datasets; Development and progression; Disease Models, Animal; Dopamine D1 receptors; Dopamine receptors; Drosophila; Endosomes; Etiology; Female; Gene expression; Genome-wide association studies; Genomes; Genomics; Homeostasis; human; Huntingtin; Huntingtin Protein - genetics; Huntingtin Protein - metabolism; Huntington Disease - genetics; Huntington's disease; Huntingtons disease; Life Sciences; Male; Mice; Mitochondria; Molecular modelling; Mutation; Neostriatum; Nervous system diseases; Neurobiology; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurons; Neurons and Cognition; Proteostasis; Quality control; RNA; Simulation; Stem cells; computational biology; systems biology; mouse; C. elegans; human; Drosophila
• ISSN: 2050-084X; 2050-084X
• DOI: 10.7554/eLife.64984

Loss of cellular homeostasis has been implicated in the etiology of several neurodegenerative diseases (NDs). However, the molecular mechanisms that underlie this loss remain poorly understood on a systems level in each case. Here, using a novel computational approach to integrate dimensional RNA-seq and in vivo neuron survival data, we map the temporal dynamics of homeostatic and pathogenic responses in four striatal cell types of Huntington's disease (HD) model mice. This map shows that most pathogenic responses are mitigated and most homeostatic responses are decreased over time, suggesting that neuronal death in HD is primarily driven by the loss of homeostatic responses. Moreover, different cell types may lose similar homeostatic processes, for example, endosome biogenesis and mitochondrial quality control in -expressing neurons and astrocytes. HD relevance is validated by human stem cell, genome-wide association study, and post-mortem brain data. These findings provide a new paradigm and framework for therapeutic discovery in HD and other NDs.