The involvement of genetic risk and the underlying developmental and neural circuit mechanisms in autism-related social deficit are largely unclear. Here, we report that deletion of , a high-susceptibility gene of ASDs, caused postnatal dentate gyrus (DG) hypoplasia, which was closely relevant to social recognition deficit. Furthermore, a previously unknown mechanism for neural cell migration in postnatal DG development was identified, in which Auts2-related signaling played a vital role as the transcription repressor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOverexpression of bromodomain 4 (BRD4) is closely correlated with a variety of human cancers by regulating the histone post-translational modifications, which renders BRD4 a promising target for pharmacological discoveries of novel therapeutic agents for cancer therapy. We herein present the design, chemical synthesis, cellular imaging and biological assessment of a novel tumor-sensitive BRD4 ligand (compound 4) by introducing anticancer BRD4 inhibitor into naphthalimide moiety (fluorescent reporter) via a sulfonamide unit as glutathione (GSH)-specific cleavable linker. Upon reaction with abundant intramolecular GSH in cancer cells or free GSH in aqueous solution (pH = 7.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA fast method based on FeO magnetic nanoparticles (FeO MNPs) modified QuEChERS integrated to dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was established for the determination of 8 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in green leafy vegetables. The factors involved in the purification by QuEChERS and concentration by DLLME were optimized. In the QuEChERS process, FeO MNPs were used as a new impurity adsorbent after the sample extraction procedure by acetonitrile, which achieved phase separation rapidly.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRadial migration of pyramidal neurons is an important event during the development of cerebral cortex. Neurons experience series of morphological and directional transitions to get to their final laminar positions. Here we report that the histone methyltransferase enhancer of zest homolog 2 (Ezh2) is involved in the regulation of cortical radial migration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders with a strong genetic component. Many lines of evidence indicated that ASD shares common genetic variants with other psychiatric disorders (for example, schizophrenia). Previous studies detected that calcium channels are involved in the etiology of many psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia and autism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHistone H3K4 demethylase LSD1 plays an important role in stem cell biology, especially in the maintenance of the silencing of differentiation genes. However, how the function of LSD1 is regulated and the differentiation genes are derepressed are not understood. Here, we report that elimination of LSD1 promotes embryonic stem cell (ESC) differentiation toward neural lineage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a high estimated heritability. ATP2B2, located on human chromosome 3p25.3, encodes the plasma membrane calcium-transporting ATPase 2 which extrudes Ca(2+) from cytosol into extracellular space.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProg Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry
July 2013
Autism is a pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder diagnosed in early childhood. The genetic factors might play an important role in its pathogenesis. Previous studies revealed that Reelin (RELN) polymorphisms were associated with autism.
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