TY - JOUR A1 - Lepeta, Katarzyna A1 - Lourenco, Mychael V. A1 - Schweitzer, Barbara C. A1 - Martino Adami, Pamela V. A1 - Banerjee, Priyanjalee A1 - Catuara-Solarz, Silvina A1 - de la Fuente Revenga, Mario A1 - Marc Guillem, Alain A1 - Haider, Mouna A1 - Ijomone, Omamuyovwi M. A1 - Nadorp, Bettina A1 - Qi, Lin A1 - Perera, Nirma D. A1 - Refsgaard, Louise K. A1 - Reid, Kimberley M. A1 - Sabbar, Mariam A1 - Sahoo, Arghyadip A1 - Schaefer, Natascha A1 - Sheean, Rebecca K. A1 - Suska, Anna A1 - Verma, Rajkumar A1 - Vicidomini, Cinzia A1 - Wright, Dean A1 - Zhang, Xing-Ding A1 - Seidenbecher, Constanze T1 - Synaptopathies: synaptic dysfunction in neurological disorders - a review from students to students JF - Journal of Neurochemistry N2 - Synapses are essential components of neurons and allow information to travel coordinately throughout the nervous system to adjust behavior to environmental stimuli and to control body functions, memories, and emotions. Thus, optimal synaptic communication is required for proper brain physiology, and slight perturbations of synapse function can lead to brain disorders. In fact, increasing evidence has demonstrated the relevance of synapse dysfunction as a major determinant of many neurological diseases. This notion has led to the concept of synaptopathies as brain diseases with synapse defects as shared pathogenic features. In this review, which was initiated at the 13th International Society for Neurochemistry Advanced School, we discuss basic concepts of synapse structure and function, and provide a critical view of how aberrant synapse physiology may contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders (autism, Down syndrome, startle disease, and epilepsy) as well as neurodegenerative disorders (Alzheimer and Parkinson disease). We finally discuss the appropriateness and potential implications of gathering synapse diseases under a single term. Understanding common causes and intrinsic differences in disease-associated synaptic dysfunction could offer novel clues toward synapse-based therapeutic intervention for neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. In this Review, which was initiated at the 13th International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN) Advanced School, we discuss basic concepts of synapse structure and function, and provide a critical view of how aberrant synapse physiology may contribute to neurodevelopmental (autism, Down syndrome, startle disease, and epilepsy) as well as neurodegenerative disorders (Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases), gathered together under the term of synaptopathies. Read the Editorial Highlight for this article on page . KW - Amyloid-beta oligomers; KW - Central nervous system KW - P75 Neurotrophin receptor KW - Cellular prion protein KW - Temporal-lobe epilepsy KW - Familial Alzheimers-disease KW - Inhibitory glycine receptor KW - Autism spectrum disorders KW - Alpha-synuclein oligomers KW - Dentate granule cells KW - Alzheimer disease KW - autism KW - Down syndrome KW - epilepsy KW - hyperekplexia KW - synapses Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-187509 VL - 138 IS - 6 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - El Hajj, Nady A1 - Dittrich, Marcus A1 - Böck, Julia A1 - Kraus, Theo F. J. A1 - Nanda, Indrajit A1 - Müller, Tobias A1 - Seidmann, Larissa A1 - Tralau, Tim A1 - Galetzka, Danuta A1 - Schneider, Eberhard A1 - Haaf, Thomas T1 - Epigenetic dysregulation in the developing Down syndrome cortex JF - Epigenetics N2 - Using Illumina 450K arrays, 1.85% of all analyzed CpG sites were significantly hypermethylated and 0.31% hypomethylated in fetal Down syndrome (DS) cortex throughout the genome. The methylation changes on chromosome 21 appeared to be balanced between hypo- and hyper-methylation, whereas, consistent with prior reports, all other chromosomes showed 3-11times more hyper- than hypo-methylated sites. Reduced NRSF/REST expression due to upregulation of DYRK1A (on chromosome 21q22.13) and methylation of REST binding sites during early developmental stages may contribute to this genome-wide excess of hypermethylated sites. Upregulation of DNMT3L (on chromosome 21q22.4) could lead to de novo methylation in neuroprogenitors, which then persists in the fetal DS brain where DNMT3A and DNMT3B become downregulated. The vast majority of differentially methylated promoters and genes was hypermethylated in DS and located outside chromosome 21, including the protocadherin gamma (PCDHG) cluster on chromosome 5q31, which is crucial for neural circuit formation in the developing brain. Bisulfite pyrosequencing and targeted RNA sequencing showed that several genes of PCDHG subfamilies A and B are hypermethylated and transcriptionally downregulated in fetal DS cortex. Decreased PCDHG expression is expected to reduce dendrite arborization and growth in cortical neurons. Since constitutive hypermethylation of PCDHG and other genes affects multiple tissues, including blood, it may provide useful biomarkers for DS brain development and pharmacologic targets for therapeutic interventions. KW - trisomy 21 KW - DNA methylation KW - Down syndrome KW - fetal brain development KW - frontal cortex KW - protocadherin gamma cluster Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-191239 VL - 11 IS - 8 ER -