Identifying SETBP1 haploinsufficiency molecular pathways to improve patient diagnosis using induced pluripotent stem cells and neural disease modelling

• Published in: Molecular autism 2024-09, Vol.15 (1), p.42-16, Article 42
• Main Authors: Shaw, Nicole C, Chen, Kevin, Farley, Kathryn O, Hedges, Mitchell, Forbes, Catherine, Baynam, Gareth, Lassmann, Timo, Fear, Vanessa S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Binding proteins; Carrier Proteins - genetics; Cell Differentiation; CRISPR; Diagnosis; GATA2 Transcription Factor - genetics; GATA2 Transcription Factor - metabolism; Genetic aspects; Haploinsufficiency; Health aspects; Humans; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells - cytology; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells - metabolism; Intellectual Disability - genetics; iPSC; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Mental retardation; Mutation; Nervous system diseases; Neural cell modelling; Neural Stem Cells - metabolism; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Neurons - metabolism; Nuclear Proteins - genetics; Nuclear Proteins - metabolism; Pathology, Molecular; Phenotype; Physiological aspects; SETBP1 haploinsufficiency disorder; Stem cells; Variants of unknown significance; Wnt Signaling Pathway - genetics
• ISSN: 2040-2392; 2040-2392
• DOI: 10.1186/s13229-024-00625-1

SETBP1 Haploinsufficiency Disorder (SETBP1-HD) is characterised by mild to moderate intellectual disability, speech and language impairment, mild motor developmental delay, behavioural issues, hypotonia, mild facial dysmorphisms, and vision impairment. Despite a clear link between SETBP1 mutations and neurodevelopmental disorders the precise role of SETBP1 in neural development remains elusive. We investigate the functional effects of three SETBP1 genetic variants including two pathogenic mutations p.Glu545Ter and SETBP1 p.Tyr1066Ter, resulting in removal of SKI and/or SET domains, and a point mutation p.Thr1387Met in the SET domain. Genetic variants were introduced into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and subsequently differentiated into neurons to model the disease. We measured changes in cellular differentiation, SETBP1 protein localisation, and gene expression changes. The data indicated a change in the WNT pathway, RNA polymerase II pathway and identified GATA2 as a central transcription factor in disease perturbation. In addition, the genetic variants altered the expression of gene sets related to neural forebrain development matching characteristics typical of the SETBP1-HD phenotype. The study investigates changes in cellular function in differentiation of iPSC to neural progenitor cells as a human model of SETBP1 HD disorder. Future studies may provide additional information relevant to disease on further neural cell specification, to derive mature neurons, neural forebrain cells, or brain organoids. We developed a human SETBP1-HD model and identified perturbations to the WNT and POL2RA pathway, genes regulated by GATA2. Strikingly neural cells for both the SETBP1 truncation mutations and the single nucleotide variant displayed a SETBP1-HD-like phenotype.