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  • Gene-Silencing Screen for Mammalian Axon Regeneration Identifies Inpp5f (Sac2) as an Endogenous Suppressor of Repair after Spinal Cord Injury.

Gene-Silencing Screen for Mammalian Axon Regeneration Identifies Inpp5f (Sac2) as an Endogenous Suppressor of Repair after Spinal Cord Injury.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience (2015-07-24)
Yixiao Zou, Massimiliano Stagi, Xingxing Wang, Kazim Yigitkanli, Chad S Siegel, Fubito Nakatsu, William B J Cafferty, Stephen M Strittmatter
ABSTRACT

Axonal growth and neuronal rewiring facilitate functional recovery after spinal cord injury. Known interventions that promote neural repair remain limited in their functional efficacy. To understand genetic determinants of mammalian CNS axon regeneration, we completed an unbiased RNAi gene-silencing screen across most phosphatases in the genome. We identified one known and 17 previously unknown phosphatase suppressors of injury-induced CNS axon growth. Silencing Inpp5f (Sac2) leads to robust enhancement of axon regeneration and growth cone reformation. Results from cultured Inpp5f(-/-) neurons confirm lentiviral shRNA results from the screen. Consistent with the nonoverlapping substrate specificity between Inpp5f and PTEN, rapamycin does not block enhanced regeneration in Inpp5f(-/-) neurons, implicating mechanisms independent of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. Inpp5f(-/-) mice develop normally, but show enhanced anatomical and functional recovery after mid-thoracic dorsal hemisection injury. More serotonergic axons sprout and/or regenerate caudal to the lesion level, and greater numbers of corticospinal tract axons sprout rostral to the lesion. Functionally, Inpp5f-null mice exhibit enhanced recovery of motor functions in both open-field and rotarod tests. This study demonstrates the potential of an unbiased high-throughput functional screen to identify endogenous suppressors of CNS axon growth after injury, and reveals Inpp5f (Sac2) as a novel suppressor of CNS axon repair after spinal cord injury. Significance statement: The extent of axon regeneration is a critical determinant of neurological recovery from injury, and is extremely limited in the adult mammalian CNS. We describe an unbiased gene-silencing screen that uncovered novel molecules suppressing axonal regeneration. Inpp5f (Sac2) gene deletion promoted recovery from spinal cord injury with no side effects. The mechanism of action is distinct from another lipid phosphatase implicated in regeneration, PTEN. This opens new pathways for investigation in spinal cord injury research. Furthermore the screening methodology can be applied on a genome wide scale to discovery the entire set of mammalian genes contributing to axonal regeneration.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Sigma-Aldrich
MISSION® shRNA Mouse Gene Family Set, Lentiviral Particles, Phosphatases
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Sodium pyruvate, SAJ special grade, ≥95.0%
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REDExtract-N-Amp Tissue PCR Kit, sufficient for 10 reactions, sufficient for 100 reactions, sufficient for 1000 reactions, hotstart, dNTPs included
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Sodium pyruvate, Hybri-Max, powder, suitable for hybridoma
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Sodium pyruvate, powder, BioReagent, suitable for cell culture, suitable for insect cell culture, ≥99%
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Sodium pyruvate, ReagentPlus®, ≥99%
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Sodium pyruvate, powder, BioXtra, suitable for mouse embryo cell culture
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Sodium pyruvate, BioXtra, ≥99%
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Rapamycin, Ready Made Solution, 2.5 mg/mL in DMSO (2.74 mM), from Streptomyces hygroscopicus
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Sodium pyruvate, anhydrous, free-flowing, Redi-Dri, ReagentPlus®, ≥99%
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MISSION® esiRNA, targeting human PTEN
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MISSION® pLKO.1-puro Non-Mammalian shRNA Control Plasmid DNA, Targets no known mammalian genes
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DAPI, for nucleic acid staining
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Trichostatin A, ≥98% (HPLC), from Streptomyces sp.