Sunovian. He is/has been involved in clinical trials conducted by Lilly & Shire. The present work is unrelated to the above grants and relationships. Jonna Kuntsi has given talks at educational events sponsored by Medice; all funds are received by King's College London and used for studies of ADHD. Theo Van Erp consulted for Roche Pharmaceuticals and has a contract with Otsuka Pharmaceutical, Ltd. Anders Dale is a Founder of CorTechs Labs, Inc. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of CorTechs Labs and Human Longevity, Inc., and receives research funding through a Research Agreement with General Electric Healhcare. Paulo Mattos was on the speakers' bureau and/or acted as consultant for Janssen-Cilag, Novartis, and Shire in the previous five years; he also received travel awards to participate in scientific meetings from those companies. The ADHD outpatient program (Grupo de Estudos do Déficit de Atenção/Institute of Psychiatry) chaired by Dr. Mattos has also received research support from Novartis and Shire.The funding sources had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, or interpretation of the data; or preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript. Tobias Banaschewski served in an advisory or consultancy role for Actelion,

No abstract

De novo loss of function mutations in the ubiquitin ligase-encoding gene Cullin3 (CUL3) lead to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In mouse, constitutive Cul3 haploinsufficiency leads to motor coordination deficits as well as ASD-relevant social and cognitive impairments. However, induction of Cul3 haploinsufficiency later in life does not lead to ASD-relevant behaviors, pointing to an important role of Cul3 during a critical developmental window. Here we show that Cul3 is essential to regulate neuronal migration and, therefore, constitutive Cul3 heterozygous mutant mice display cortical lamination abnormalities. At the molecular level, we found that Cul3 controls neuronal migration by tightly regulating the amount of Plastin3 (Pls3), a previously unrecognized player of neural migration. Furthermore, we found that Pls3 cell-autonomously regulates cell migration by regulating actin cytoskeleton organization, and its levels are inversely proportional to neural migration speed. Finally, we provide evidence that cellular phenotypes associated with autism-linked gene haploinsufficiency can be rescued by transcriptional activation of the intact allele in vitro, offering a proof of concept for a potential therapeutic approach for ASDs.

ObjectiveAttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are common neurodevelopmental disorders that frequently co-occur. We aimed to directly compare all three disorders. The ENIGMA consortium is ideally positioned to investigate structural brain alterations across these disorders.MethodsStructural T1-weighted whole-brain MRI of controls (n=5,827) and patients with ADHD (n=2,271), ASD (n=1,777), and OCD (n=2,323) from 151 cohorts worldwide were analyzed using standardized processing protocols. We examined subcortical volume, cortical thickness and surface area differences within a mega-analytical framework, pooling measures extracted from each cohort. Analyses were performed separately for children, adolescents, and adults using linear mixed-effects models adjusting for age, sex and site (and ICV for subcortical and surface area measures).ResultsWe found no shared alterations among all three disorders, while shared alterations between any two disorders did not survive multiple comparisons correction. Children with ADHD compared to those with OCD had smaller hippocampal volumes, possibly influenced by IQ. Children and adolescents with ADHD also had smaller ICV than controls and those with OCD or ASD. Adults with ASD showed thicker frontal cortices compared to adult controls and other clinical groups. No OCD-specific alterations across different age-groups and surface area alterations among all disorders in childhood and adulthood were observed.ConclusionOur findings suggest robust but subtle alterations across different age-groups among ADHD, ASD, and OCD. ADHD-specific ICV and hippocampal alterations in children and adolescents, and ASD-specific cortical thickness alterations in the frontal cortex in adults support previous work emphasizing neurodevelopmental alterations in these disorders.

Surprisingly little is known about the critical metabolic changes that neural cells have to undergo during development and how even mild, temporary shifts in this program can influence brain circuitries and behavior. Inspired by the discovery that mutations in SLC7A5, a transporter of metabolically-relevant large neutral amino acids, lead to a form of autism spectrum disorder, we employed metabolomic profiling to study the metabolic states of the cerebral cortex across different stages of life. We found that the cerebral cortex undergoes significant metabolic remodeling throughout development, with certain groups of metabolites showing stage-specific changes. But what are the consequences of interfering with this metabolic program? By manipulating Slc7a5 expression in neural cells, we found that the metabolism of large neutral amino acids and lipids in the cerebral cortex are highly interconnected. Deletion of Slc7a5 in neurons perturbs specifically the postnatal metabolic state leading to a shift in lipid metabolism and a stage- and cell-type-specific alteration in neuronal activity patterns, resulting in a long-term cortical circuit dysfunction.

No abstract

11De novo loss of function mutations in the ubiquitin ligase-encoding gene Cullin3 (CUL3) lead to 12 autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we used Cul3 mouse models to evaluate the 13 consequences of Cul3 mutations in vivo. Our results show that Cul3 haploinsufficient mice 14 exhibit deficits in motor coordination as well as ASD-relevant social and cognitive impairments. 15Cul3 mutant brain displays cortical lamination abnormalities due to defective neuronal migration 16 and reduced numbers of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. In line with the observed abnormal 17 columnar organization, Cul3 haploinsufficiency is associated with decreased spontaneous 18 excitatory and inhibitory activity in the cortex. At the molecular level, employing a quantitative 19 proteomic approach, we show that Cul3 regulates cytoskeletal and adhesion protein abundance 20 in mouse embryos. Abnormal regulation of cytoskeletal proteins in Cul3 mutant neuronal cells 21 results in atypical organization of the actin mesh at the cell leading edge, likely causing the 22 observed migration deficits. In contrast to these important functions early in development, Cul3 23 deficiency appears less relevant at adult stages. In fact, induction of Cul3 haploinsufficiency in 24 adult mice does not result in the behavioral defects observed in constitutive Cul3 25

De novo loss of function mutations in the ubiquitin ligase-encoding gene Cullin3 (CUL3) lead to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In mouse, constitutive Cul3 haploinsufficiency leads to motor coordination deficits as well as ASD-relevant social and cognitive impairments. However, induction of Cul3 haploinsufficiency later in life does not lead to ASD-relevant behaviors, pointing to an important role of Cul3 during a critical developmental window. Here we show that Cul3 is essential to regulate neuronal migration and, therefore, constitutive Cul3 heterozygous mutant mice display cortical lamination abnormalities. At the molecular level, we found that Cul3 controls neuronal migration by tightly regulating the amount of Plastin3 (Pls3), a previously unrecognized player of neural migration. Furthermore, we found that Pls3 cell-autonomously regulates cell migration by regulating actin cytoskeleton organization, and its levels are inversely proportional to neural migration speed. Finally, we provide evidence that cellular phenotypes associated with autism-linked gene haploinsufficiency can be rescued by transcriptional activation of the intact allele in vitro, offering a proof of concept for a potential therapeutic approach for ASDs.