Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder with a prevalence of 0.9–2.6%. Twin studies showed a heritability of 38–90%, indicating strong genetic contributions. Yet it is unclear how many genes have been associated with ASD and how strong the evidence is. A comprehensive review and analysis of literature and data may bring a clearer big picture of autism genetics. We show that as many as 2193 genes, 2806 SNPs/VNTRs, 4544 copy number variations (CNVs) and 158 linkage regions have been associated with ASD by GWAS, genome-wide CNV studies, linkage analyses, low-scale genetic association studies, expression profiling and other low-scale experimental studies. To evaluate the evidence, we collected metadata about each study including clinical and demographic features, experimental design and statistical significance, and used a scoring and ranking approach to select a core data set of 434 high-confidence genes. The genes mapped to pathways including neuroactive ligand–receptor interaction, synapse transmission and axon guidance. To better understand the genes we parsed over 30 databases to retrieve extensive data about expression patterns, protein interactions, animal models and pharmacogenetics. We constructed a MySQL-based online database and share it with the broader autism research community at http://autismkb.cbi.pku.edu.cn, supporting sophisticated browsing and searching functionalities.

β-Thalassemia is one of the most common genetic blood diseases and is caused by either point mutations or deletions in the β-globin (HBB) gene. The generation of patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and subsequent correction of the disease-causing mutations may be a potential therapeutic strategy for this disease. Due to the low efficiency of typical homologous recombination, endonucleases, including TALENs and CRISPR/Cas9, have been widely used to enhance the gene correction efficiency in patient-derived iPSCs. Here, we designed TALENs and CRISPR/Cas9 to directly target the intron2 mutation site IVS2-654 in the globin gene. We observed different frequencies of double-strand breaks (DSBs) at IVS2-654 loci using TALENs and CRISPR/Cas9, and TALENs mediated a higher homologous gene targeting efficiency compared to CRISPR/Cas9 when combined with the piggyBac transposon donor. In addition, more obvious off-target events were observed for CRISPR/Cas9 compared to TALENs. Finally, TALENs-corrected iPSC clones were selected for erythroblast differentiation using the OP9 co-culture system and detected relatively higher transcription of HBB than the uncorrected cells. This comparison of using TALENs or CRISPR/Cas9 to correct specific HBB mutations in patient-derived iPSCs will guide future applications of TALENs- or CRISPR/Cas9-based gene therapies in monogenic diseases.

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Recent studies have demonstrated that following estrogen ablation, estrogen responsive breast cancer cells undergo apoptosis. In addition, estrogen receptor (ER) expression has been strongly correlated with the expression of the bcl-2 gene product, p26Bcl-2 protein, which is known to inhibit apoptosis. In the present studies, we investigated whether estrogen affects the intracellular levels of p26Bcl-2 and thereby modulates taxol-induced apoptosis of estrogen responsive human breast cancer MCF-7 cells. Transfer of MCF-7 cells to a culture-medium without estrogens reduced their intracellular p26Bcl-2 levels by 50%. Inclusion of 0.1 microM estradiol in the medium produced approximately a four-fold increase in p26Bcl-2, but not p29Bcl-x1, or p21Bax levels; the expression of the c-myc and mdr-1 genes remained unchanged. Estradiol-induced four-fold increase in the ratio of the p26Bcl-2 to p21Bax levels caused a significant decline in the lethal, kilobase size DNA fragments of apoptosis, which had resulted when MCF-7 cells were cultured in a medium without estrogen. In addition, in MCF-7 cells, estradiol-induced increase in the intracellular p26Bcl-2 to p21Bax ratios was associated with a significant reduction in the large-sized DNA fragmentation induced by treatment with taxol. The increased ratios also protected MCF-7 cells against taxol-mediated cytotoxicity as assessed by the MTT assay. These results suggest that by modulating p26Bcl-2 levels, estrogens may affect the antitumor activity of taxol and potentially of other anti-breast cancer drugs against estrogen responsive human breast cancer cells.

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Chromatin remodeling, particularly histone acetylation, plays a critical role in the progression of pathological cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. We hypothesized that curcumin, a natural polyphenolic compound abundant in the spice turmeric and a known suppressor of histone acetylation, would suppress cardiac hypertrophy through the disruption of p300 histone acetyltransferase-dependent (p300-HAT-dependent) transcriptional activation. We tested this hypothesis using primary cultured rat cardiac myocytes and fibroblasts as well as two well-established mouse models of cardiac hypertrophy. Curcumin blocked phenylephrin-induced (PEinduced) cardiac hypertrophy in vitro in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, curcumin both prevented and reversed mouse cardiac hypertrophy induced by aortic banding (AB) and PE infusion, as assessed by heart weight/BW and lung weight/BW ratios, echocardiographic parameters, and gene expression of hypertrophic markers. Further investigation demonstrated that curcumin abrogated histone acetylation, GATA4 acetylation, and DNA-binding activity through blocking p300-HAT activity. Curcumin also blocked AB-induced inflammation and fibrosis through disrupting p300-HAT-dependent signaling pathways. Our results indicate that curcumin has the potential to protect against cardiac hypertrophy, inflammation, and fibrosis through suppression of p300-HAT activity and downstream GATA4, NF-κB, and TGF-β-Smad signaling pathways.

Protein modification by ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like proteins (UBLs) regulates numerous biological functions. The UFM1 system, a novel UBL conjugation system, is implicated in mouse development and hematopoiesis. However, its broad biological functions and working mechanisms remain largely elusive. CDK5RAP3, a possible ufmylation substrate, is essential for epiboly and gastrulation in zebrafish. Herein, we report a crucial role of CDK5RAP3 in liver development and hepatic functions. Cdk5rap3 knockout mice displayed prenatal lethality with severe liver hypoplasia, as characterized by delayed proliferation and compromised differentiation. Hepatocyte-specific Cdk5rap3 knockout mice suffered post-weaning lethality, owing to serious hypoglycemia and impaired lipid metabolism. Depletion of CDK5RAP3 triggered endoplasmic reticulum stress and activated unfolded protein responses in hepatocytes. We detected the in vivo interaction of CDK5RAP3 with UFL1, the defined E3 ligase in ufmylation. Notably, loss of CDK5RAP3 altered the ufmylation profile in liver cells, suggesting that CDK5RAP3 serves as a novel substrate adaptor for this UBL modification. Collectively, our study identifies CDK5RAP3 as an important regulator of ufmylation and suggests the involvement of ufmylation in mammalian development.