Characterization of Vps13b-mutant mice reveals neuroanatomical and behavioral phenotypes with females less affected

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nbd.2023.106259
• Publication Date: 2023-08-12T03:27:06Z
• Authors: Charlotte Montillot; Emilia Skutunova; Ayushma; Morgane Dubied; Adam Lahmar; Sylvie Nguyen; Benazir Peerally; Fabrice Prin; Yannis Duffourd; Christel Thauvin-...; Laurence Duplomb; Heng Wang; Muhammad Ansar; Laurence Faivre; Nicolas Navarro; Shilpi Minocha; Stephan C. Collins; Binnaz Yalcin
• Keywords: Male; Physiology; Developmental Disabilities; Mechanosensitive Ion Channels in Physiology and Disease; Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry; Hypotonia; Child; Humans; Male; Female; Animals; Mice; Microcephaly/genetics; Microcephaly/pathology; Muscle Hypotonia/genetics; Muscle Hypotonia/pathology; Retinal Degeneration/genetics; Developmental Disabilities/genetics; Phenotype; Brain neuroanatomical phenotyping; Cohen syndrome; Mouse mutants; Neurodegeneration; VPS13B; Hippocampus; Gene; Imaging; Mice; VPS13B; Genetic Basis of Neutropenia Disorders; Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; Cerebellum; Health Sciences; Genetics; Humans; Animals; Psychology; Dentate gyrus; Neurodegeneration; Child; Molecular Biology; Biology; Cohen syndrome; Mouse mutants; Retinal Degeneration; Brain neuroanatomical phenotyping; Life Sciences; Cortex (anatomy); Molecular Mechanisms of Ion Channels Regulation; FOS: Psychology; Phenotype; FOS: Biological sciences; Microcephaly; Muscle Hypotonia; Medicine; Female; Sensory Neurons; RC321-571; Neuroscience

The vacuolar protein sorting-associated protein 13B (VPS13B) is a large and highly conserved protein. Disruption of VPS13B causes the autosomal recessive Cohen syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by microcephaly and intellectual disability among other features, including developmental delay, hypotonia, and friendly-personality. However, the underlying mechanisms by which VPS13B disruption leads to brain dysfunction still remain unexplained. To gain insights into the neuropathogenesis of Cohen syndrome, we systematically characterized brain changes in Vps13b-mutant mice and compared murine findings to 235 previously published and 17 new patients diagnosed with VPS13B-related Cohen syndrome. We showed that Vps13b is differentially expressed across brain regions with the highest expression in the cerebellum, the hippocampus and the cortex with postnatal peak. Half of the Vps13b-/- die during the first week of life. The remaining mice have a normal lifespan and display the core phenotypes of the human disease, including microcephaly, growth delay, hypotonia, altered memory, and enhanced sociability. Systematic 2D and 3D brain histo-morphological analyses reveal specific structural changes in the brain starting after birth. The dentate gyrus is the brain region with the most prominent reduction in size, while the motor cortex is specifically thinner in layer VI. The fornix, the fasciculus retroflexus, and the cingulate cortex remain unaffected. Interestingly, these neuroanatomical changes implicate an increase of neuronal death during infantile stages with no progression in adulthood suggesting that VPS13B promotes neuronal survival early in life. Importantly, whilst both sexes were affected, some neuroanatomical and behavioral phenotypes were less pronounced or even absent in females. We evaluate sex differences in Cohen patients and conclude that females are less affected both in mice and patients. Our findings provide new insights about the neurobiology of VPS13B and highlight previously unreported brain phenotypes while defining Cohen syndrome as a likely new entity of non-progressive infantile neurodegeneration.