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A primate-specific, brain isoform ofKCNH2 affects cortical physiology, cognition, neuronal repolarization and risk of schizophrenia
- Stephen J Huffaker1,2,
- Jingshan Chen1,2,
- Kristin K Nicodemus1,2,
- Fabio Sambataro1,2,
- Feng Yang3,
- Venkata Mattay1,2,
- Barbara K Lipska1,2,
- Thomas M Hyde1,2,
- Jian Song1,2,
- Dan Rujescu4,
- Ina Giegling4,
- Karine Mayilyan5,
- Morgan J Proust1,
- Armen Soghoyan5,
- Grazia Caforio6,
- Joseph H Callicott1,
- Alessandro Bertolino6,
- Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg1,2 nAff7,
- Jay Chang2,3,
- Yuanyuan Ji3,
- Michael F Egan1,
- Terry E Goldberg1,2,
- Joel E Kleinman1,2,
- Bai Lu2,3 &
- …
- Daniel R Weinberger1,2
Nature Medicinevolume 15, pages509–518 (2009)Cite this article
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Abstract
Organized neuronal firing is crucial for cortical processing and is disrupted in schizophrenia. Using rapid amplification of 5′ complementary DNA ends in human brain, we identified a primate-specific isoform (3.1) of the ether-a-go-go–related K+ channelKCNH2 that modulates neuronal firing.KCNH2-3.1 messenger RNA levels are comparable to full-lengthKCNH2 (1A) levels in brain but three orders of magnitude lower in heart. In hippocampus from individuals with schizophrenia,KCNH2-3.1 expression is 2.5-fold greater thanKCNH2-1A expression. A meta-analysis of five clinical data sets (367 families, 1,158 unrelated cases and 1,704 controls) shows association of single nucleotide polymorphisms inKCNH2 with schizophrenia. Risk-associated alleles predict lower intelligence quotient scores and speed of cognitive processing, altered memory-linked functional magnetic resonance imaging signals and increasedKCNH2-3.1 mRNA levels in postmortem hippocampus. KCNH2-3.1 lacks a domain that is crucial for slow channel deactivation. Overexpression ofKCNH2-3.1 in primary cortical neurons induces a rapidly deactivating K+ current and a high-frequency, nonadapting firing pattern. These results identify a previously undescribed KCNH2 channel isoform involved in cortical physiology, cognition and psychosis, providing a potential new therapeutic drug target.
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Acknowledgements
We thank J. Hardy, J. Duckworth and P. Momeni for technical assistance with high G-C content sequencing. We also thank J. Hardy, D. Goldman, A. Law and W. Chen for their very helpful review of the manuscript. We thank R. Straub and M. Mayhew for their input on statistical genetics analysis, M. Barenboim for help with bioinformatics and M. Herman and S. Mitkus for their help with postmortem tissue. We are extremely grateful for the assistance of G. Liu and S. Chen in the cloning and sequencing ofKCNH2-3.1. We also would like to thank H.-J. Möller, P. Muglia and coworkers at the Department of Psychiatry, Ludwig Maximilians University for their help with subject recruitment and evaluation. S.J. Huffaker was partially supported by the US National Institutes of Health/Cambridge University Health Science Scholars and Medical Scientist Training Programs. Recruitment of the individuals with schizophrenia at Ludwig Maximilians University was supported by GlaxoSmithKline. Human fetal tissue was obtained from the NICHD Brain and Tissue Bank for Developmental Disorders at the University of Maryland.
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Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
Present address: Current address: Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, Germany.,
Authors and Affiliations
Clinical Brain Disorders Branch, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Stephen J Huffaker, Jingshan Chen, Kristin K Nicodemus, Fabio Sambataro, Venkata Mattay, Barbara K Lipska, Thomas M Hyde, Jian Song, Morgan J Proust, Joseph H Callicott, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, Michael F Egan, Terry E Goldberg, Joel E Kleinman & Daniel R Weinberger
Genes, Cognition and Psychosis Program, NIMH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Stephen J Huffaker, Jingshan Chen, Kristin K Nicodemus, Fabio Sambataro, Venkata Mattay, Barbara K Lipska, Thomas M Hyde, Jian Song, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, Jay Chang, Terry E Goldberg, Joel E Kleinman, Bai Lu & Daniel R Weinberger
Section on Neural Development and Plasticity, National Institute of Child Health and Development, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Feng Yang, Jay Chang, Yuanyuan Ji & Bai Lu
Department of Psychiatry, Molecular and Clinical Neurobiology, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
Dan Rujescu & Ina Giegling
Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Yerevan State Medical University, Health Ministry of Armenian, Yerevan, Armenia
Karine Mayilyan & Armen Soghoyan
Department of Neurological and Psychiatric Sciences, Psychiatric Neuroscience Group, Section on Mental Disorders, University of Bari, Bari, Italy
Grazia Caforio & Alessandro Bertolino
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Contributions
S.J.H. designed the study, collected and analyzed the data and wrote the paper; D.R.W. designed the study, analyzed data and wrote the paper; K.K.N. performed the statistical genetics and wrote the paper; J. Chen, Y.J. and J.S. performed western blot and HEK expression experiments; F.S., V.M., J.H.C., M.J.P. and A.M.-L. performed the imaging experiments and edited the paper; F.Y., B.K.L. and J. Chang performed the electrophysiology experiments; D.R. and I.G. collected the German cohort samples; A.S. and K.M. collected the Armenian cohort samples; A.B. and G.C. collected the Italian data set; B.L., J.E.K. and T.M.H. collected the postmortem cohort samples; D.R.W., J.E.K., M.F.E., T.E.G., T.M.H., V.M. and J.H.C. collected the CBDB cohort samples.
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Correspondence toDaniel R Weinberger.
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Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Data 1–8, Supplementary Figs. 1–4, Supplementary Note and Supplementary Methods (PDF 2068 kb)
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Huffaker, S., Chen, J., Nicodemus, K.et al. A primate-specific, brain isoform ofKCNH2 affects cortical physiology, cognition, neuronal repolarization and risk of schizophrenia.Nat Med15, 509–518 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.1962
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