Cited by 178Schizophrenia research and treatmentNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on BehaviorMental Health and Psychiatry

Distinctive transcriptome alterations of prefrontal pyramidal neurons in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder

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Arion, D, Corradi, J P, Tang, S, Datta, D, Boothe, F, He, A, Cacace, A M, Zaczek, R +3 more·2015·Molecular Psychiatry

Abstract

Schizophrenia is associated with alterations in working memory that reflect dysfunction of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) circuitry. Working memory depends on the activity of excitatory pyramidal cells in DLPFC layer 3 and, to a lesser extent, in layer 5. Although many studies have profiled gene expression in DLPFC gray matter in schizophrenia, little is known about cell-type-specific transcript expression in these two populations of pyramidal cells. We hypothesized that interrogating gene expression, specifically in DLPFC layer 3 or 5 pyramidal cells, would reveal new and/or more robust schizophrenia-associated differences that would provide new insights into the nature of pyramidal cell dysfunction in the illness. We also sought to determine the impact of other variables, such as a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder or medication use at the time of death, on the patterns of gene expression in pyramidal neurons. Individual pyramidal cells in DLPFC layers 3 or 5 were captured by laser microdissection from 36 subjects with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and matched normal comparison subjects. The mRNA from cell collections was subjected to transcriptome profiling by microarray followed by quantitative PCR validation. Expression of genes involved in mitochondrial (MT) or ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) functions were markedly downregulated in the patient group (P-values for MT-related and UPS-related pathways were <10(-7) and <10(-5), respectively). MT-related gene alterations were more prominent in layer 3 pyramidal cells, whereas UPS-related gene alterations were more prominent in layer 5 pyramidal cells. Many of these alterations were not present, or found to a lesser degree, in samples of DLPFC gray matter from the same subjects, suggesting that they are pyramidal cell specific. Furthermore, these findings principally reflected alterations in the schizophrenia subjects were not present or present to a lesser degree in the schizoaffective disorder subjects (diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder was the most significant covariate, P<10(-6)) and were not attributable to factors frequently comorbid with schizophrenia. In summary, our findings reveal expression deficits in MT- and UPS-related genes specific to layer 3 and/or layer 5 pyramidal cells in the DLPFC of schizophrenia subjects. These cell type-specific transcriptome signatures are not characteristic of schizoaffective disorder, providing a potential molecular-cellular basis of differences in clinical phenotypes.

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Authors
Arion, D., Corradi, J. P., Tang, S., Datta, D., Boothe, F., He, A., Cacace, A. M., Zaczek, R., Albright, C. F., Tseng, G., & Lewis, D. A.
Affiliations
  • University of Pittsburgh (US)
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb (United States) (US)
Corresponding author
Lewis, D A
Venue
Molecular Psychiatry
Published
2015-01-06
Volume
20
Issue
11
Pages
1397-1405
ISSN
  • 1359-4184 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-5578
OpenAlex
W1989747504
Cited by
177
References
63
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 13
FWCI
16.76
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Molecular Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • Bristol-Myers Squibb
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute of Mental Health (P50MH084053, MH084053, R01MH043784, P50MH103204, MH-103204, R37MH043784, MH043784)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Mental Health and Psychiatry
Keywords
schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, pyramidal neurons, layer 5 pyramidal cells, cell type-specific gene expression, working memory, mitochondrial dysfunction, ubiquitin-proteasome system, postmortem brain, gene expression profiling, antipsychotic effects
MeSH terms
Adult, Analysis of Variance, Animals, Female, Gene Expression Regulation, Humans, Macaca fascicularis, Male, Middle Aged, Psychotic Disorders, RNA, Messenger, Schizophrenia, Antipsychotic Agents, Signal Transduction, Prefrontal Cortex, Pyramidal Cells, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Gene Expression Profiling, Mitochondrial Proteins, Ubiquitin, Transcriptome, Laser Capture Microdissection

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