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Springer Nature [academic journals on nature.com], Molecular Psychiatry, 11(25), p. 2695-2711, 2020

DOI: 10.1038/s41380-020-0844-z

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Developmental excitation-inhibition imbalance underlying psychoses revealed by single-cell analyses of discordant twins-derived cerebral organoids

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

AbstractDespite extensive genetic and neuroimaging studies, detailed cellular mechanisms underlying schizophrenia and bipolar disorder remain poorly understood. Recent progress in single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technologies enables identification of cell-type-specific pathophysiology. However, its application to psychiatric disorders is challenging because of methodological difficulties in analyzing human brains and the confounds due to a lifetime of illness. Brain organoids derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) of the patients are a powerful avenue to investigate the pathophysiological processes. Here, we generated iPSC-derived cerebral organoids from monozygotic twins discordant for psychosis. scRNA-seq analysis of the organoids revealed enhanced GABAergic specification and reduced cell proliferation following diminished Wnt signaling in the patient, which was confirmed in iPSC-derived forebrain neuronal cells. Two additional monozygotic twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia also confirmed the excess GABAergic specification of the patients’ neural progenitor cells. With a well-controlled genetic background, our data suggest that unbalanced specification of excitatory and inhibitory neurons during cortical development underlies psychoses.