Ocular phenotypes in a mouse model of impaired glucocerebrosidase activity

SLC16A8 is a causal contributor to age-related macular degeneration risk

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a complex neurodegenerative disease, is a leading cause of visual impairment worldwide with a strong genetic component. Genetic studies have identified several loci, but few causal genes with functional characterization. Here we highlight multiple lines of evidence which show a causal role in AMD for SLC16A8, which encodes MCT3, a retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) specific lactate transporter. First, in an unbiased, genome-wide analysis of rare coding variants we show multiple SLC16A8 rare variants are associated with AMD risk, corroborating previous borderline significant reports from AMD rare variant studies. Second, we report a novel SLC16A8 mutation in a three-generation family with early onset macular degeneration. Finally, mis-expression in multiple model organisms shows functional and anatomic retinal consequences. This study highlights the important role for SLC16A8 and lactate regulation towards outer retina/RPE health and highlights a potential new therapeutic opportunity for the treatment of AMD.

Establishment and Phenotypic Analysis of the Novel Gaucher Disease Mouse Model With the Partially Humanized Gba1 Gene and F213I Mutation

Gaucher disease (GD) is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder caused by mutations in the GBA1 gene, which produces the glucocerebrosidase (GCase) protein. There are more than 500 mutations reported in GBA1, among which L444P (p.Leu444Pro) and F213I (p.Phe213Ile) are the most common in the Chinese population, while the function of F213I mutation remains elusive. This study aims to establish the GD mouse model of partially humanized Gba1 gene with F213I mutation. In vitro GCase activity assays showed that the product of partially humanized Gba1 gene, in which the mouse exons 5-7 were replace by the corresponding human exons, displayed similar activity with the wild-type mouse Gba1, while the F213I mutation in the humanized Gba1 led to significant decrease in enzyme activity. ES cell targeting was used to establish the mice expressing the partially humanized Gba1-F213I. Gba1^F213I/+ mice did not show obviously abnormal phenotypes, but homozygous Gba1^F213I/F213I mice died within 24 h after birth, whose epidermal stratum corneum were abnormal from the wild-type. The GCase activity in Gba1^F213I/F213I mice greatly decreased. In conclusion, our results showed that the partially humanized GD mouse model with the F213I mutation was developed and homozygous F213I mutation is lethal for newborn mice.

Analyses of Pseudoexfoliation aqueous humor lipidome

Pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PEX) is a systemic disorder that manifests as fluffy, proteinaceous fibrillar material throughout the body. In the eye such deposits result in glaucoma (PEXG), due to impeding aqueous...

PRINCESS: comprehensive detection of haplotype resolved SNVs, SVs, and methylation

Long-read sequencing has been shown to have advantages in structural variation (SV) detection and methylation calling. Many studies focus either on SV, methylation, or phasing of SNV; however, only the combination of variants provides a comprehensive insight into the sample and thus enables novel findings in biology or medicine. PRINCESS is a structured workflow that takes raw sequence reads and generates a fully phased SNV, SV, and methylation call set within a few hours. PRINCESS achieves high accuracy and long phasing even on low coverage datasets and can resolve repetitive, complex medical relevant genes that often escape detection. PRINCESS is publicly available at https://github.com/MeHelmy/princess under the MIT license.