Mapping the glial transcriptome in Huntington's disease using snRNAseq: selective disruption of glial signatures across brain regions.

Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease with a fatal outcome. There is accumulating evidence of a prominent role of glia in the pathology of HD, and we investigated this by conducting single nuclear RNA sequencing (snRNAseq) of human post mortem brain in four differentially affected regions; caudate nucleus, frontal cortex, hippocampus and cerebellum. Across 127,205 nuclei from donors with HD and age/sex matched controls, we found heterogeneity of glia which is altered in HD.

Calcium-Enhanced Medium-Based Delivery of Splice Modulating Antisense Oligonucleotides in 2D and 3D hiPSC-Derived Neuronal Models.

Antisense technology demonstrates significant potential for addressing inherited brain diseases, with over a dozen products already available and numerous others in the development pipeline. The versatility of differentiating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into nearly all neural cell types proves invaluable for comprehending the mechanisms behind neurological diseases, replicating cellular phenotypes, and advancing the testing and development of new therapies, including antisense oligonucleotide therapeutics. While delivering antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) to human iPSC-based neuronal models has posed challenges, this study explores various delivery methods, including lipid-based transfection, gymnotic uptake, Ca-enhanced medium (CEM)-based delivery, and electroporation, in 2D and 3D hiPSC-derived neuronal models.

Joining forces to develop individualized antisense oligonucleotides for patients with brain or eye diseases: the example of the Dutch Center for RNA Therapeutics.

Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) offer versatile tools to modify the processing and expression levels of gene transcripts. As such, they have a high therapeutic potential for rare genetic diseases, where applicability of each ASO ranges from thousands of patients worldwide to single individuals based on the prevalence of the causative pathogenic variant. It was shown that development of individualized ASOs was feasible within an academic setting, starting with Milasen for the treatment of a patient with CLN7 Batten's disease in the USA.

A Guide to Chemical Considerations for the Pre-Clinical Development of Oligonucleotides.

Oligonucleotide therapeutics, a pioneering category of modern medicinal drugs, are at the forefront of utilizing innate mechanisms to modulate gene expression. With 18 oligonucleotide-based FDA-approved medicines currently available for treating various clinical conditions, this field showcases an innovative potential yet to be fully explored. Factors such as purity, formulation, and endotoxin levels profoundly influence the efficacy and safety of these therapeutics.

Generation of human induced pluripotent stem cell lines (LUMCi051-A,B and LUMCi052-A,B,C) of two patients with Spinocerebellar ataxia type 7.

Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 7 (SCA7) is an autosomal dominantly inherited disorder, primarily characterized by cerebellar ataxia and visual loss. SCA7 is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in exon 3 of the ATXN7 gene. We generated human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) from peripheral blood-derived erythroblasts from two SCA7 patients (LUMCi051-A,B and LUMCi052-A,B,C) using integration-free episomal vectors.