Direct conversion of human fibroblasts into mature and functional neurons, termed induced neurons (iNs), was achieved for the first time 6 years ago. This technology offers a promising shortcut for obtaining patient‐ and disease‐specific neurons for disease modeling, drug screening, and other biomedical applications. However, fibroblasts from adult donors do not reprogram as easily as fetal donors, and no current reprogramming approach is sufficiently efficient to allow the use of this technology using patient‐derived material for large‐scale applications. Here, we investigate the difference in reprogramming requirements between fetal and adult human fibroblasts and identify REST as a major reprogramming barrier in adult fibroblasts. Via functional experiments where we overexpress and knockdown the REST‐controlled neuron‐specific microRNAs miR‐9 and miR‐124, we show that the effect of REST inhibition is only partially mediated via microRNA up‐regulation. Transcriptional analysis confirmed that REST knockdown activates an overlapping subset of neuronal genes as microRNA overexpression and also a distinct set of neuronal genes that are not activated via microRNA overexpression. Based on this, we developed an optimized one‐step method to efficiently reprogram dermal fibroblasts from elderly individuals using a single‐vector system and demonstrate that it is possible to obtain iNs of high yield and purity from aged individuals with a range of familial and sporadic neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson's, Huntington's, as well as Alzheimer's disease.

DNA methylation contributes to the maintenance of genomic integrity in somatic cells, in part through the silencing of transposable elements. In this study, we use CRISPR-Cas9 technology to delete DNMT1 , the DNA methyltransferase key for DNA methylation maintenance, in human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs). We observe that inactivation of DNMT1 in hNPCs results in viable, proliferating cells despite a global loss of DNA CpG-methylation. DNA demethylation leads to specific transcriptional activation and chromatin remodeling of evolutionarily young, hominoid-specific LINE-1 elements (L1s), while older L1s and other classes of transposable elements remain silent. The activated L1s act as alternative promoters for many protein-coding genes involved in neuronal functions, revealing a hominoid-specific L1-based transcriptional network controlled by DNA methylation that influences neuronal protein-coding genes. Our results provide mechanistic insight into the role of DNA methylation in silencing transposable elements in somatic human cells, as well as further implicating L1s in human brain development and disease.

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), which make up 8% of the human genome, have been proposed to participate in the control of gene regulatory networks. In this study, we find a region- and developmental stage-specific expression pattern of ERVs in the developing human brain, which is linked to a transcriptional network based on ERVs. We demonstrate that almost 10,000, primarily primate-specific, ERVs act as docking platforms for the co-repressor protein TRIM28 in human neural progenitor cells, which results in the establishment of local heterochromatin. Thereby, TRIM28 represses ERVs and consequently regulates the expression of neighboring genes. These results uncover a gene regulatory network based on ERVs that participates in control of gene expression of protein-coding transcripts important for brain development.

Many neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by the presence of intracellular protein aggregates, resulting in alterations in autophagy. However, the consequences of impaired autophagy for neuronal function remain poorly understood. In this study, we used cell culture and mouse models of huntingtin protein aggregation as well as post-mortem material from patients with Huntington's disease to demonstrate that Argonaute-2 (AGO2) accumulates in the presence of neuronal protein aggregates and that this is due to impaired autophagy. Accumulation of AGO2, a key factor of the RNA-induced silencing complex that executes microRNA functions, results in global alterations of microRNA levels and activity. Together, these results demonstrate that impaired autophagy found in neurodegenerative diseases not only influences protein aggregation but also directly contributes to global alterations of intracellular post-transcriptional networks.

No abstract

During adult neurogenesis, newly formed olfactory bulb (OB) interneurons migrate radially to integrate into specific layers of the OB. Despite the importance of this process, the intracellular mechanisms that regulate radial migration remain poorly understood. Here, we find that microRNA (miRNA) let-7 regulates radial migration by modulating autophagy in new-born neurons. Using Argonaute2 immunoprecipitation, we performed global profiling of miRNAs in adult-born OB neurons and identified let-7 as a highly abundant miRNA family. Knockdown of let-7 in migrating neuroblasts prevented radial migration and led to an immature morphology of newly formed interneurons. This phenotype was accompanied by a decrease in autophagic activity. Overexpression of Beclin-1 or TFEB in new-born neurons lacking let-7 resulted in re-activation of autophagy and restored radial migration. Thus, these results reveal a miRNA-dependent link between autophagy and adult neurogenesis with implications for neurodegenerative diseases where these processes are impaired.

Transposable elements (TEs) are dynamically expressed at high levels in multiple human tissues, but the function of TE-derived transcripts remains largely unknown. In this study, we identify numerous TE-derived microRNAs (miRNAs) by conducting Argonaute2 RNA immunoprecipitation followed by small RNA sequencing (AGO2 RIP-seq) on human brain tissue. Many of these miRNAs originated from LINE-2 (L2) elements, which entered the human genome around 100–300 million years ago. L2-miRNAs derived from the 3’ end of the L2 consensus sequence and thus shared very similar sequences, indicating that L2-miRNAs could target transcripts with L2s in their 3’UTR. In line with this, many protein-coding genes carried fragments of L2-derived sequences in their 3’UTR: these sequences served as target sites for L2-miRNAs. L2-miRNAs and their targets were generally ubiquitously expressed at low levels in multiple human tissues, suggesting a role for this network in buffering transcriptional levels of housekeeping genes. In addition, we also found evidence that this network is perturbed in glioblastoma. In summary, our findings uncover a TE-based post-transcriptional network that shapes transcriptional regulation in human cells.

MicroRNAs (miRNA) are small, non-coding RNAs mediating post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. miRNAs have recently been implicated in hippocampus-dependent functions such as learning and memory, although the roles of individual miRNAs in these processes remain largely unknown. Here, we achieved stable inhibition using AAV-delivered miRNA sponges of individual, highly expressed and brain-enriched miRNAs; miR-124, miR-9 and miR-34, in hippocampal neurons. Molecular and cognitive studies revealed a role for miR-124 in learning and memory. Inhibition of miR-124 resulted in an enhanced spatial learning and working memory capacity, potentially through altered levels of genes linked to synaptic plasticity and neuronal transmission. In contrast, inhibition of miR-9 or miR-34 led to a decreased capacity of spatial learning and of reference memory, respectively. On a molecular level, miR-9 inhibition resulted in altered expression of genes related to cell adhesion, endocytosis and cell death, while miR-34 inhibition caused transcriptome changes linked to neuroactive ligand-receptor transduction and cell communication. In summary, this study establishes distinct roles for individual miRNAs in hippocampal function.