Dysregulated COMT Expression in Fragile X Syndrome

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Kagistia Hana Utami
  • Nur Amirah Binte Muhammed Yusof
  • Marta Garcia-Miralles
  • Skotte, Niels
  • Srikanth Nama
  • Prabha Sampath
  • Sarah R. Langley
  • Mahmoud A. Pouladi

Transcriptional and proteomics analyses in human fragile X syndrome (FXS) neurons identified markedly reduced expression of COMT, a key enzyme involved in the metabolism of catecholamines, including dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine. FXS is the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders. COMT encodes for catechol-o-methyltransferase and its association with neuropsychiatric disorders and cognitive function has been extensively studied. We observed a significantly reduced level of COMT in in FXS human neural progenitors and neurons, as well as hippocampal neurons from Fmr1 null mice. We show that deficits in COMT were associated with an altered response in an assay of dopaminergic activity in Fmr1 null mice. These findings demonstrate that loss of FMRP downregulates COMT expression and affects dopamine signaling in FXS, and supports the notion that targeting catecholamine metabolism may be useful in regulating certain neuropsychiatric aspects of FXS.

Original languageEnglish
JournalNeuroMolecular Medicine
Volume25
Pages (from-to)644–649
ISSN1535-1084
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

    Research areas

  • COMT, Fragile X syndrome, Isogenic stem cell model, Neurons, Proteomics, RNAseq

ID: 367711847