Hoffman, EJ;
Turner, KJ;
Fernandez, JM;
Cifuentes, D;
Ghosh, M;
Ijaz, S;
Jain, RA;
... Giraldez, AJ; + view all
(2016)
Estrogens Suppress a Behavioral Phenotype in Zebrafish Mutants of the Autism Risk Gene, CNTNAP2.
Neuron
, 89
(4)
pp. 725-733.
10.1016/j.neuron.2015.12.039.
Preview |
Text
NEURON-D-15-01334_R2-2+reduced.5-74.pdf - Accepted Version Download (10MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of devastating neurodevelopmental syndromes that affect up to 1 in 68 children. Despite advances in the identification of ASD risk genes, the mechanisms underlying ASD remain unknown. Homozygous loss-of-function mutations in Contactin Associated Protein-like 2 (CNTNAP2) are strongly linked to ASD. Here we investigate the function of Cntnap2 and undertake pharmacological screens to identify phenotypic suppressors. We find that zebrafish cntnap2 mutants display GABAergic deficits particularly in the forebrain and sensitivity to drug-induced seizures. High-throughput behavioral profiling identifies nighttime hyperactivity in cntnap2 mutants, while pharmacological testing reveals dysregulation of GABAergic and glutamatergic systems. Finally, we find that estrogen receptor agonists elicit a behavioral fingerprint anti-correlative to that of cntnap2 mutants and show that the phytoestrogen biochanin A specifically reverses the mutant behavioral phenotype. These results identify estrogenic compounds as phenotypic suppressors and illuminate novel pharmacological pathways with relevance to autism.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Estrogens Suppress a Behavioral Phenotype in Zebrafish Mutants of the Autism Risk Gene, CNTNAP2 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.neuron.2015.12.039 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.12.039 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2016. This manuscript version is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Non-derivative 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This licence allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for personal and non-commercial use providing author and publisher attribution is clearly stated. Further details about CC BY licences are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. Access may be initially restricted by the publisher. |
| Keywords: | Zebrafish, autism, sleep, estrogen |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Cell and Developmental Biology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1473613 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
