3 Questions: Mriganka Sur on the research origins of the
Rett syndrome is a devastating developmental dysfunction, principally occurring in women, brought on by mutations within the gene MECP2 that results in extreme cognitive, motor, and different signs. As such, the March 10 approval by the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration of the first-ever remedy for the dysfunction, a drug referred to as Trofinetide primarily based on the pure protein IGF-1, brings new hope to sufferers and their households.
The approval can be a dream come true for Mriganka Sur, Newton Professor of Neuroscience in The Picower Institute for Studying and Reminiscence and the Division of Mind and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. His lab’s preclinical discoveries in mice, notably a extremely influential paper revealed in 2009, offered the primary demonstration that injecting IGF-1 or its peptide fragment may reverse the results of decreased or altered MECP2. This offered a mechanism-based rationale for IGF-1 as a possible therapeutic intervention. And Sur’s lab has by no means stopped studying Rett syndrome since.
The analysis started almost 20 years in the past when his lab was finding out a well-known phenomenon in neuroscience: When an animal’s eye is blocked throughout a essential interval of growth, the mind shifts neural connections referred to as synapses to commit extra brainpower to the unblocked eye. Sur’s lab investigated the molecules concerned on this flexibility, or “ocular dominance plasticity,” and found IGF-1’s function. Right here, Sur discusses his Rett syndrome analysis.
Q: How did your lab uncover that IGF-1 could be a possible Rett syndrome therapeutic?
A: We determined to check the molecular foundation of ocular dominance plasticity utilizing a large-scale, unbiased display. An fascinating gene set that modified when an eye fixed was closed was the IGF-1 gene set named for the expansion issue IGF-1. Once we checked one week after closing the attention, a binding protein for IGF-1 had gone up. It soaked up lots of IGF-1. That steered that to make connections change it’s essential to lower molecules like IGF-1.
This was revealed in a paper in 2006 in Nature Neuroscience, the place Daniela Tropea, who was a postdoc within the lab, led the experiments. The icing on the cake was when Daniela delivered a peptide type of IGF-1 to the mind. When she did that and closed the attention, thereby overcoming the discount of IGF-1, then this shift of synapses didn’t occur. The addition of IGF-1 into the mind stabilized synapses and made them resistant to alter, primarily making them adult-like.
In 2007 the lab of Adrian Bird in Edinburgh made a mouse line wherein they may preserve MECP2 in verify for the primary 5 – 6 weeks of life, in order that the mice started to develop Rett syndrome-like signs. However then Adrian’s lab turned the gene again on and the mice largely recovered. I used to be instantly struck by this discovery. It confirmed that Rett syndrome isn’t a dysfunction of degeneration, it’s a dysfunction of aberrant and even abnormally extended growth: :oss of MeCP2 possible reduces molecules that the mind requires for regular growth, however including again these molecules may allow the mind to develop usually, at the very least to some extent.
The creating mind reveals pronounced plasticity, as demonstrated by ocular dominance plasticity in visible cortex. This plasticity happens solely throughout formative years, and never later. If mice lacking MECP2 had aberrantly extended growth, they need to present this plasticity later in life as properly. Daniela and I made a decision to do an experiment to check this concept. We requested whether or not we may use our visible cortex paradigm to ask, is there extended plasticity into maturity in Rett mannequin mice and might we reverse it by including IGF-1? We did this utilizing Rett mannequin mice from the lab of Rudolf Jaenisch on the Whitehead Institute [for Biomedical Research].
Not like in regular mice, the place there’s solely a essential time window of plasticity within the visible cortex, Rett mannequin mice confirmed an impact of closing one eye even in maturity. We instantly then requested, is there decreased IGF-1 within the mind? And there was, and there was elevated IGF-1 binding protein. These mice had been in a state of perpetual plasticity.
We reasoned if we may give grownup Rett mannequin mice a peptide type of IGF-1 by way of injection the impact of this perpetual plasticity ought to go away, that means that the animals mustn’t present an impact of the attention being closed — as happens when mice usually mature. And that’s what occurred. We confirmed that IGF-1 peptide elevated expression of plenty of synaptic molecules and made excitatory synapses stronger. This offered a robust mechanism for explaining the results of the drug. Lastly we requested, do the mice do higher in different methods? We discovered that the mice lived longer, that they moved higher and different signs improved.
We revealed that discovery in 2009 in PNAS: In a mouse mannequin we confirmed that by understanding the molecules underlying Rett syndrome’s extended growth and plasticity we may intervene to probably offset the molecular and synaptic deficits and deal with the dysfunction. That is the foundational discovery behind Trofinetide and its mechanism of motion in Rett syndrome.
Q: Inform us about your lab’s continued work on elementary mechanisms of Rett syndrome?
A: We’ve by no means stopped engaged on Rett syndrome. It’s a devastating dysfunction, and there’s actually nonetheless a lot left to study.
In 2014 we published one other paper in PNAS exhibiting that doses of recombinant human IGF1 had been efficient in mice. And I used to be additionally the co-author in that very same journal later that yr exhibiting encouraging results in a small human medical trial.
We’ve additionally executed extra analysis, proper as much as the current day, to know the basic mechanisms of how the genetic mutations perturb mind growth. In 2017 utilizing induced stem cell cultures derived from sufferers and regular topics, we found that when MECP2 is missing, microRNAs essential to correct mind growth develop into misregulated. Overexpression of the microRNAs prevented new neurons from being born, whereas inhibiting the microRNAs enabled wholesome neural beginning. This was a surprisingly early impact of Rett syndrome that we demonstrated straight in human neurons and their progenitors.
Final yr we used an progressive mixture of superior imaging strategies and human stem cell-derived organoids to show that in Rett syndrome, the migration of neurons to the cerebral cortex turns into a lot slower and extremely erratic. These discoveries led to the sobering realization that there might be very early adjustments in mind growth because of the genetic mutations of Rett syndrome.
Q: What’s the significance of seeing this primary analysis obtain medical utility and impression?
A: By finding out plasticity in regular mice and the basic mechanisms by which synapses change, and therefore change mind perform and habits, we moved into analyzing the impact of a gene that underlies a devastating mind dysfunction. IGF-1 peptide has develop into the very first molecule to achieve this stage for any developmental mind dysfunction in that it’s a mechanism-based therapeutic. Primarily based on an animal mannequin and doing the mechanistic evaluation of why does the gene have an effect on the mind and the way would possibly we offset it, we set the course for the primary drug to deal with Rett syndrome.
Quite a lot of the early work was Daniela’s perception by way of how to consider primary mechanisms of developmental plasticity and apply them to mind issues. This was fully uncharted territory as as to whether plasticity could be a phenomenon underlying developmental issues, and whether or not the visible cortex within the mouse may then mannequin the dysfunction. And at last we had the concept a molecule that has a task in regulating this plasticity might be utilized to the dysfunction. Many concepts in science don’t work out, however this one did. A number of folks from my lab participated within the discovery. We additionally couldn’t have examined these concepts with out our collaboration with Rudolf Jaenisch and his lab. He was very beneficiant along with his lab’s assets — we had no grant funds for this work at the moment — and our labs have now collaborated on a number of research since then.
It’s the dream of each neuroscientist to have an effect on the world ultimately. And that is my dream come true!