Detection of Synaptic Proteins in Microglia by Flow Cytometry.

A growing body of evidence indicates that microglia actively remove synapses in vivo, thereby playing a key role in synaptic refinement and modulation of brain connectivity. This phenomenon was mainly investigated in immunofluorescence staining and confocal microscopy. However, a quantification of synaptic material in microglia using these techniques is extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive. To address this issue, we aimed to quantify synaptic proteins in microglia using flow cytometry. With this approach, we first showed that microglia from the healthy adult mouse brain contain a detectable level of VGLUT1 protein. Next, we found more than two-fold increased VGLUT1 immunoreactivity in microglia from the developing brain (P15) as compared to adult microglia. These data indicate that microglia-mediated synaptic pruning mostly occurs during the brain developmental period. We then quantified the VGLUT1 staining in microglia in two transgenic models characterized by pathological microglia-mediated synaptic pruning. In the 5xFAD mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (AD) microglia exhibited a significant increase in VGLUT1 immunoreactivity before the onset of amyloid pathology. Moreover, conditional deletion of TDP-43 in microglia, which causes a hyper-phagocytic phenotype associated with synaptic loss, also resulted in increased VGLUT1 immunoreactivity within microglia. This work provides a quantitative assessment of synaptic proteins in microglia, under homeostasis, and in mouse models of disease

Fine mapping of AHI1 as a schizophrenia susceptibility gene: from association to evolutionary evidence.

In previous studies, we identified a locus for schizophrenia on 6q23.3 and proposed the Abelson helper integration site 1 (AHI1) as the candidate gene. AHI1 is expressed in the brain and plays a key role in neurodevelopment, is involved in Joubert syndrome, and has been recently associated with autism. The neurodevelopmental role of AHI1 fits with etiological hypotheses of schizophrenia. To definitively confirm our hypothesis, we searched for associations using a dense map of the region. Our strongest findings lay within the AHI1 gene: single-nucleotide polymorphisms rs11154801 and rs7759971 showed significant associations (P=6.23E-06; P=0.84E-06) and haplotypes gave P values in the 10E-8 to 10E-10 range. The second highest significant region maps close to AHI1 and includes the intergenic region between BC040979 and PDE7B (rs2038549 at P=9.70E-06 and rs1475069 at P=6.97E-06), and PDE7B and MAP7. Using a sample of Palestinian Arab families to confirm these findings, we found isolated signals. While these results did not retain their significance after correction for multiple testing, the joint analysis across the 2 samples supports the role of AHI1, despite the presence of heterogeneity. Given the hypothesis of positive selection of schizophrenia genes, we resequenced a 11 kb region within AHI1 in ethnically defined populations and found evidence for a selective sweep. Network analysis indicates 2 haplotype clades, with schizophrenia-susceptibility haplotypes clustering within the major clade. In conclusion, our data support the role of AHI1 as a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia and confirm it has been subjected to positive selection, also shedding light on new possible candidate genes, MAP7 and PDE7B.-Torri, F., Akelai, A., Lupoli, S., Sironi, M., Amann-Zalcenstein, D., Fumagalli, M., Dal Fiume, C., Ben-Asher, E., Kanyas, K., Cagliani, R., Cozzi, P., Trombetti, G., Lievers, L. S., Salvi, E., Orro, A., Beckmann, J. S., Lancet, D., Kohn, Y., Milanesi, L., Ebstein, R. B., Lerer, B., Macciardi, F. Fine mapping of AHI1 as a schizophrenia susceptibility gene: from association to evolutionary evidence