Early deficits in an in vitro striatal microcircuit model carrying the Parkinson's GBA-N370S mutation

ABSTRACT

Understanding medium spiny neuron (MSN) physiology is essential to understand motor impairments in Parkinson’s disease (PD) given the architecture of the basal ganglia. Here, we developed a custom three-chambered microfluidic platform and established a cortico-striato-nigral microcircuit partially recapitulating the striatal presynaptic landscape in vitro using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons. We found that, cortical glutamatergic projections facilitated MSN synaptic activity, and dopaminergic transmission enhanced maturation of MSNs in vitro. Replacement of wild-type iPSC-derived dopamine neurons (iPSC-DaNs) in the striatal microcircuit with those carrying the PD-related GBA-N370S mutation led to a depolarisation of resting membrane potential and an increase in rheobase in iPSC-MSNs, as well as a reduction in both voltage-gated sodium and potassium currents. Such deficits were resolved in late microcircuit cultures, and could be reversed in younger cultures with antagonism of protein kinase A activity in iPSC-MSNs. Taken together, our results highlight the unique utility of modelling striatal neurons in a modular physiological circuit to reveal mechanistic insights into GBA1 mutations in PD.

FILE DESCRIPTIONS

Source Data.xlsx: Tabular datasets plotted on main figures 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Supplementary Data.xlsx: Tabular datasets plotted on supplementary figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12.

Key Resources Table.xlsx: Table containing key resources (primary and secondary antibodies, cell lines and software) used in this study.

List of Primers.xlsx: Primers used in RT-qPCR.