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Zhang J, Pandey M, Awe A, Lue N, Kittock C, Fikse E, Degner K, Staples J, Mokhasi N, Chen W, Yang Y, Adikaram P, Jacob N, Greenfest-Allen E, Thomas R, Bomeny L, Zhang Y, Petros TJ, Wang X, Li Y, Simonds WF. The association of GNB5 with Alzheimer disease revealed by genomic analysis restricted to variants impacting gene function. Am J Hum Genet 2024; 111:473-486. [PMID: 38354736 PMCID: PMC10940018 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2024.01.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2023] [Revised: 01/09/2024] [Accepted: 01/10/2024] [Indexed: 02/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Disease-associated variants identified from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) frequently map to non-coding areas of the genome such as introns and intergenic regions. An exclusive reliance on gene-agnostic methods of genomic investigation could limit the identification of relevant genes associated with polygenic diseases such as Alzheimer disease (AD). To overcome such potential restriction, we developed a gene-constrained analytical method that considers only moderate- and high-risk variants that affect gene coding sequences. We report here the application of this approach to publicly available datasets containing 181,388 individuals without and with AD and the resulting identification of 660 genes potentially linked to the higher AD prevalence among Africans/African Americans. By integration with transcriptome analysis of 23 brain regions from 2,728 AD case-control samples, we concentrated on nine genes that potentially enhance the risk of AD: AACS, GNB5, GNS, HIPK3, MED13, SHC2, SLC22A5, VPS35, and ZNF398. GNB5, the fifth member of the heterotrimeric G protein beta family encoding Gβ5, is primarily expressed in neurons and is essential for normal neuronal development in mouse brain. Homozygous or compound heterozygous loss of function of GNB5 in humans has previously been associated with a syndrome of developmental delay, cognitive impairment, and cardiac arrhythmia. In validation experiments, we confirmed that Gnb5 heterozygosity enhanced the formation of both amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brains of AD model mice. These results suggest that gene-constrained analysis can complement the power of GWASs in the identification of AD-associated genes and may be more broadly applicable to other polygenic diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianhua Zhang
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
| | - Mritunjay Pandey
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Adam Awe
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Nicole Lue
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Claire Kittock
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Emma Fikse
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Katherine Degner
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Jenna Staples
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Neha Mokhasi
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Weiping Chen
- Genomic Core, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Bldg. 8/Rm 1A11, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Yanqin Yang
- Laboratory of Transplantation Genomics, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, Bldg. 10/Rm 7S261, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Poorni Adikaram
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Nirmal Jacob
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Emily Greenfest-Allen
- Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Rachel Thomas
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Laura Bomeny
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Yajun Zhang
- Unit on Cellular and Molecular Neurodevelopment, Bldg. 35/Rm 3B 1002, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Timothy J Petros
- Unit on Cellular and Molecular Neurodevelopment, Bldg. 35/Rm 3B 1002, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Xiaowen Wang
- Partek Incorporated, 12747 Olive Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63141, USA
| | - Yulong Li
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - William F Simonds
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, Bldg. 10/Rm 8C-101, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
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Pandey M, Zhang JH, Adikaram PR, Kittock CM, Lue N, Awe AM, Degner KN, Jacob N, Staples JN, Thomas R, Kohnen AB, Ganesan S, Kabat J, Chen CK, Simonds WF. Specific regulation of mechanical nociception by Gβ5 involves GABA-B receptors. JCI Insight 2023:134685. [PMID: 37219953 PMCID: PMC10371342 DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.134685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Mechanical, thermal, and chemical pain sensation is conveyed by primary nociceptors, a subset of sensory afferent neurons. The intracellular regulation of the primary nociceptive signal is an area of active study. We report here the discovery of a Gβ5-dependent regulatory pathway within mechanical nociceptors that restrains anti-nociceptive input from metabotropic GABA-B receptors. In mice with conditional knockout (cKO) of Gnb5 targeted to peripheral sensory neurons, we demonstrate the impairment of mechanical, thermal, and chemical nociception. We further report the specific loss of mechanical nociception in Rgs7-Cre+/-; Gnb5fl/fl mice but not in Rgs9-Cre+/-; Gnb5fl/fl mice, suggesting that Gβ5 might specifically regulate mechanical pain in Rgs7+ cells. Additionally, Gβ5-dependent and Rgs7-associated mechanical nociception is dependent upon GABA-B receptor signaling since both were abolished by treatment with a GABA-B receptor antagonist and since cKO of Gβ5 from sensory cells or from Rgs7+ cells potentiated the analgesic effects of GABA-B agonists. Following activation by the Mrgprd agonist β-alanine, enhanced sensitivity to inhibition by baclofen was observed in primary cultures of Rgs7+ sensory neurons harvested from Rgs7-Cre+/-; Gnb5fl/fl mice. Taken together, these results suggest that the targeted inhibition of Gβ5 function in Rgs7+ sensory neurons might provide specific relief for mechanical allodynia, including that contributing to chronic neuropathic pain, without reliance on exogenous opioids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mritunjay Pandey
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, National Institutes of Health, NIDDK, Bethesda, United States of America
| | - Jian-Hua Zhang
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, National Institutes of Health, NIDDK, Bethesda, United States of America
| | - Poorni R Adikaram
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, National Institutes of Health, NIDDK, Bethesda, United States of America
| | - Claire M Kittock
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, National Institutes of Health, NIDDK, Bethesda, United States of America
| | - Nicole Lue
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, National Institutes of Health, NIDDK, Bethesda, United States of America
| | - Adam M Awe
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, National Institutes of Health, NIDDK, Bethesda, United States of America
| | - Katherine N Degner
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, National Institutes of Health, NIDDK, Bethesda, United States of America
| | - Nirmal Jacob
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, National Institutes of Health, NIDDK, Bethesda, United States of America
| | - Jenna N Staples
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, National Institutes of Health, NIDDK, Bethesda, United States of America
| | - Rachel Thomas
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, National Institutes of Health, NIDDK, Bethesda, United States of America
| | - Allison B Kohnen
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, National Institutes of Health, NIDDK, Bethesda, United States of America
| | | | - Juraj Kabat
- NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, United States of America
| | - Ching-Kang Chen
- Department of Molecular Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, United States of America
| | - William F Simonds
- Metabolic Diseases Branch, National Institutes of Health, NIDDK, Bethesda, United States of America
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Fikse EN, Zhang J, Pandey M, Smerin G, Awe A, Lue N, Kittock C, Chen W, Yang Y, Adikaram P, Jacob N, Greenfest‐Allen E, Thomas R, Bomeny L, Wang X, Li Y, Simonds WF. Association of Mouse Vulnerability to Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology with Mutations of
Gnb5
: A Modulator of G‐protein Coupled Receptor Signaling. FASEB J 2022. [DOI: 10.1096/fasebj.2022.36.s1.r2012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Adam Awe
- NIDDKNational Institutes of HealthBethesdaMD
| | | | | | | | - Yanqin Yang
- Office of Scientific Workforce Diversity Chief's LaboratoryNational Institutes of HealthBethesdaMD
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Yulong Li
- NIDDKNational Institutes of HealthBethesdaMD
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Abstract
Scholars view racial identity as a fluid social construction that can shift with time and context. But outside of academia, do people intuitively see racial identity as fluid or fixed? Four studies reveal that people see racial identity as varying flexibly with the social context—in particular, assimilating to the race of one’s friends. Participants perceived the same Black–White Biracial men as identifying as more Black (Study 1) and wanting to be perceived as more stereotypically Black (i.e., athletic; Study 3c) when with Black friends than when alone. Conversely, Biracial men were perceived as identifying as more White (Study 2) and wanting to be perceived as more stereotypically White (i.e., competent and well-spoken; Studies 3a, 3b) when with White friends. Fluid inferences of racial identity also extended to Monoracial people (Studies 4a, 4b). We conclude that people perceive others’ racial identity as shifting with the social context—eliciting distinct biases.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Darren Agboh
- The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
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Abstract
BACKGROUND Type I DNA topoisomerases, divided mechanistically into two subfamilies, are ubiquitous enzymes that participate in replication and transcription. In addition to its role in these fundamental processes, the biological importance of eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase I is underscored by its identification as the target of the antitumor alkaloid camptothecin. An understanding of the mechanism of catalysis and interactions with camptothecin and other drugs has been hampered by a lack of detailed structural information. RESULTS The three-dimensional structure of a 26 kDA fragment (residues 135 to about 363) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae DNA topoisomerase I has been determined at 1.9 A resolution. The fragment has a novel architecture comprising a concave platform and a pair of outlying V-shaped helices. Photocrosslinking and protein footprinting experiments show that the positively charged concave surface and the junction region of the V-shaped pair of helices contact DNA in the enzyme-DNA complex. CONCLUSIONS Crystallographic, biochemical and genetic data indicate that this 26 kDa fragment of yeast DNA topoisomerase I is involved in complex formation between the enzyme and DNA, and probably also in camptothecin-enzyme-DNA ternary complex formation. A molecular model for protein-DNA interaction based on these data is proposed. The bipartite DNA-binding regions of the 26 kDa fragment may enable eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase I to adapt to sequence-dependent structural variations in its DNA substrates.
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Affiliation(s)
- N Lue
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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