Finally, we tested whether ASO treatment might rescue the susceptibility to the glutamate excitotoxicity observed in C9ORF72 iPSNs. iPSNs treated with ASOs targeting the repeat sequence or targeting C9ORF72 exon 2 were exposed to 30 μM glutamate for 4 hr and monitored for cell selleck chemicals death. ASOs targeting the repeat, without altering C9ORF72

RNA levels, significantly rescued the glutamate toxicity phenotype by up to 30%. ASOs targeting exon 2, which reduced C9ORF72 mRNA levels, still significantly protected the iPSN by 16% (Figures 7E and S9J). This suggests that the loss of C9ORF72 mRNA and subsequent loss of C9ORF72 protein do not play a role in the observed vulnerability to glutamate, but instead implies that RNA toxicity causes C9ORF72 cells to be highly sensitive to excitotoxicity. This is further supported by the fact that RAN products were still detected in the C9ORF72 iPSNs after ASO treatment, through either immunocytochemistry or protein blotting, despite a rescue of the described phenotypes, including glutamate toxicity (Figures 7F and S9K). Notably, whether the ASO altered

a population of newly synthesized RAN or other RAN products that are not detected with the present antibodies is not known. Taken together, the current studies provide evidence that RNA toxicity plays a key role in C9ORF72 ALS based on the molecular, biochemical, and functional studies described here. Specifically, we have (1) demonstrated that patient fibroblasts and iPSNs contain intranuclear Sorafenib cost GGGGCC RNA foci similar to those found in vivo (DeJesus-Hernandez et al., 2011), (2) identified numerous proteins

that interact with the C9ORF72 GGGGCCexp RNA, (3) confirmed interaction of ADARB2 with the RNA expansion in vitro and in vivo, else (4) described atypical gene expression in C9ORF72 ALS tissue and cell lines that match C9ORF72 CNS patient tissue, and (5) determined that C9ORF72 iPSC neurons are highly susceptible to glutamate toxicity. Most importantly, by using these various pathological and physiological readouts in human iPSC neurons, we were able to identify antisense oligonucleotides that can abrogate C9ORF72 RNA expansion-dependent pathology, RNA binding protein aggregation, aberrant gene expression, and neurotoxicity. Furthermore, ASO that selectively blocked the hexanucleotide expansion without lowering C9ORF72 RNA levels could minimize pathology and toxicity (Figure 8). Notably, iPSCs derived from ALS patients appear to accurately recapitulate the pathological and genomic abnormalities found in the C9ORF72 ALS brain. Modeling this expansion mutation in animals can be particularly challenging in part due to the fact that the vast majority of human disease is caused by very large numbers of G:C-rich repeats that prove difficult to artificially express.