Genome-wide, integrative analysis of circular RNA dysregulation and the corresponding circular RNA-microRNA-mRNA regulatory axes in autism.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs), a class of long noncoding RNAs, are known to be enriched in mammalian neural tissues. Although a wide range of dysregulation of gene expression in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been reported, the role of circRNAs in ASD remains largely unknown. Here, we performed genome-wide circRNA expression profiling in postmortem brains from individuals with ASD and controls and identified 60 circRNAs and three coregulated modules that were perturbed in ASD.

BDNF elevates the axonal levels of hnRNPs Q and R in cultured rat cortical neurons.

Local translation plays important roles in the maintenance and various functions of axons, and dysfunctions of local translation in axons are implicated in various neurological diseases. Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) are RNA binding proteins with multiple functions in RNA metabolism. Here, we identified 20 hnRNPs in the axons of cultured rat cortical neurons by interrogating published axon mass spectrometric databases with rat protein databases.

Unbiased Proteomic Study of the Axons of Cultured Rat Cortical Neurons.

The axon is a long projection connecting a neuron to its targets. Here, the axons of cultured rat cortical neurons were isolated with micropatterned chips that enable the separation of axons from their cell bodies. Proteins extracted from isolated axons and whole neurons were subjected to analyses using two-dimensional liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (2D-LC-MS/MS) analyses without and with stable isotope dimethyl labeling, resulting in the identification of >2500 axonal proteins and 103 axon-enriched proteins.

A study of the spatial protein organization of the postsynaptic density isolated from porcine cerebral cortex and cerebellum.

Postsynaptic density (PSD) is a protein supramolecule lying underneath the postsynaptic membrane of excitatory synapses and has been implicated to play important roles in synaptic structure and function in mammalian central nervous system. Here, PSDs were isolated from two distinct regions of porcine brain, cerebral cortex and cerebellum. SDS-PAGE and Western blotting analyses indicated that cerebral and cerebellar PSDs consisted of a similar set of proteins with noticeable differences in the abundance of various proteins between these samples.