Study links gene to sleep problems in autism

Summary: Deficiencies in the SHANK3 gene have been linked to sleep disruptions in both mouse models and people with ASD. Researchers found patients with Phelan-McDermid syndrome, a genetic disorder associated with autism, report trouble falling, and staying asleep. In mouse models, animals lacking the SHANK3 gene had a reduction in deep sleep quality and spent more time awake when other mice were sleeping.

Source: Washington State University

Up to 80 percent of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience sleep problems. The source of these problems has been as much of a mystery as the exact causes of ASD, which scientists are still working to unravel. A new study led by a team of neuroscientists at Washington State University has brought scientists closer to identifying the causes of disturbed sleep in autism, which could open the door to future treatment that would bring relief to children with autism and their caregivers.

“Poor sleep is not only a problem for individuals with autism but is also one of the top concerns among caregivers,” said Lucia Peixoto, an assistant professor in the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine and the principal investigator and senior author on the study. “In addition, there is a clear link between sleep problems and severity of core autism symptoms such as social and communication challenges and repetitive behaviors. If we can get to the root of these sleep issues, this could potentially help ease other autism symptoms as well.”

Published in the open access journal eLife, the team’s findings suggest that sleep problems in patients with autism spectrum disorder may be linked to a mutation in the gene SHANK3 that in turn regulates the genes of the body’s 24-hour day and night cycle. Their study showed that people who were missing the SHANK3 gene and mice that lacked part of the gene had difficulty falling asleep. Their study in mice also strongly supported one possible explanation as to why individuals with autism have trouble falling asleep: It’s not that they are not sleepy. They are sleepy, but they simply cannot fall asleep.

Peixoto and her colleagues took a multistep approach to their study. First, they analyzed sleep data from patients with Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS), a genetic disorder that often goes hand in hand with autism and is thought to be related to the SHANK3 gene. They found that PMS patients who are missing the SHANK3 gene have trouble falling asleep and wake up multiple times during the night, starting at age five.

“Many kids with Phelan-McDermid syndrome sleep less than six hours a night, and their sleep is really poor across their lifespan so it’s an ongoing source of difficulty for them,” said postdoctoral research associate and co-first author Hannah Schoch.

Schoch along with co-first author and postdoctoral research associate Ashley Ingiosi did much of the hands-on work for the study. For the next step, Ingiosi studied sleep in a mouse model of PMS, which used mice that are missing a part of the Shank3 gene and wild-type control mice.

When kept on a light-dark cycle of 12 hours each and allowed to sleep normally, mice with the Shank3 mutation spent more time awake at the end of the dark period, when nocturnal mice would normally take a nap. The data also suggested that the quality of their deep sleep was reduced.

In a subsequent sleep deprivation experiment, all mice were kept awake for the first five hours of their main sleep phase.

“What we found is that the Shank3 mutant mice were able to build up a need for sleep to the same extent as wild-type mice, which tells us that they were sleepy,” Ingiosi said. “But it actually took them twice as long to fall asleep.”

A gene expression analysis of these mice showed decreased activity in a group of genes related to the body’s circadian clock, which helps to maintain a 24-hour day/night rhythm. Sleep deprivation made this worse–the team found that the number of genes that didn’t turn on correctly was twice as high in sleep-deprived mutant mice. This suggests that sleep deprivation exaggerates the genetic differences between Shank3 mutants and wild-type mice, Peixoto said, which may translate to a worsening of symptoms in people who have conditions associated with SHANK3 mutations, such as PMS and autism.

The final experiment looked at how changes in circadian clock genes affected daily activity patterns in Shank3 mutant mice. They showed that the decrease in circadian clock gene activity did not change the timing of daily rest-activity rhythms in the mice, but–surprisingly–did make them less active.

This showa a child looking at a DNA strand
Published in the open access journal eLife, the team’s findings suggest that sleep problems in patients with autism spectrum disorder may be linked to a mutation in the gene SHANK3 that in turn regulates the genes of the body’s 24-hour day and night cycle. The image is in the public domain.

Follow-up studies to be conducted by the research team will delve deeper into two questions: whether the sleep issues in mice with Shank3 mutations are present at birth or develop over time and what the mechanism is by which SHANK3 mutations cause sleep issues.

“If we are able to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the sleep problem in Shank3 mutant mice, we expect that this will also strongly relate to sleep problems in autism in general,” Peixoto said. “And that would suggest novel points of intervention.”

Funding: The work was funded through a grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.

About this neuroscience research article

Source:
Washington State University
Media Contacts:
Lucia Peixoto – Washington State University
Image Source:
The image is in the public domain.

Original Research: Open access
“Shank3 modulates sleep and expression of circadian transcription factors”. Ashley M Ingiosi, Hannah Schoch, Taylor Wintler, Kristan G Singletary, Dario Righelli, Leandro G Roser, Elizabeth Medina, Davide Risso, Marcos G Frank, Lucia Peixoto. eLife. doi:10.7554/eLife.42819

Abstract

Shank3 modulates sleep and expression of circadian transcription factors

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is the most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder in the United States and often co-presents with sleep problems. Sleep problems in ASD predict the severity of ASD core diagnostic symptoms and have a considerable impact on the quality of life of caregivers. Little is known, however, about the underlying molecular mechanisms of sleep problems in ASD. We investigated the role of Shank3, a high confidence ASD gene candidate, in sleep architecture and regulation. We show that mice lacking exon 21 of Shank3 have problems falling asleep even when sleepy. Using RNA-seq we show that sleep deprivation increases the differences in prefrontal cortex gene expression between mutants and wild types, downregulating circadian transcription factors Per3, Bhlhe41, Hlf, Tef, and Nr1d1. Shank3 mutants also have trouble regulating wheel-running activity in constant darkness. Overall, our study shows that Shank3 is an important modulator of sleep and clock gene expression.

Feel free to share this Neuroscience News.
Join our Newsletter
I agree to have my personal information transferred to AWeber for Neuroscience Newsletter ( more information )
Sign up to receive our recent neuroscience headlines and summaries sent to your email once a day, totally free.
We hate spam and only use your email to contact you about newsletters. You can cancel your subscription any time.