Murine model of triosephosphate isomerase deficiency with anemia and severe neuromuscular dysfunction

Tracey D Myers; Carolyn Ferguson; Eric Gliniak; Gregg E Homanics; Michael J Palladino

doi:10.1016/j.crneur.2022.100062

Murine model of triosephosphate isomerase deficiency with anemia and severe neuromuscular dysfunction

Curr Res Neurobiol. 2022 Nov 9:3:100062. doi: 10.1016/j.crneur.2022.100062. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Tracey D Myers^{1

2

3}, Carolyn Ferguson⁴, Eric Gliniak^{2

3}, Gregg E Homanics^{1

2

4

5}, Michael J Palladino^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
² Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
³ Pittsburgh Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁴ Department of Anesthesiology and Preoperative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁵ Department of Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Abstract

Triosephosphate isomerase deficiency (TPI Df) is a rare, aggressive genetic disease that typically affects young children and currently has no established treatment. TPI Df is characterized by hemolytic anemia, progressive neuromuscular degeneration, and a markedly reduced lifespan. The disease has predominately been studied using invertebrate and in vitro models, which lack key aspects of the human disease. While other groups have generated mammalian Tpi1 mutant strains, specifically with the mouse mus musculus, these do not recapitulate key characteristic phenotypes of the human disease. Reported here is the generation of a novel murine model of TPI Df. CRISPR-Cas9 was utilized to engineer the most common human disease-causing mutation, Tpi1 ^E105D , and Tpi1 ^null mice were also isolated as a frame-shifting deletion. Tpi1 ^E105D/null mice experience a markedly shortened lifespan, postural abnormalities consistent with extensive neuromuscular dysfunction, hemolytic anemia, pathological changes in spleen, and decreased body weight. There is a ∼95% reduction in TPI protein levels in Tpi1 ^E105D/null animals compared to wild-type littermates, consistent with decreased TPI protein stability, a known cause of TPI Df. This work illustrates the capability of Tpi1 ^E105D/null mice to serve as a mammalian model of human TPI Df. This work will allow for advancement in the study of TPI Df within a model with physiology similar to humans. The development of the model reported here will enable mechanistic studies of disease pathogenesis and, importantly, efficacy testing in a mammalian system for emerging TPI Df treatments.

Keywords: CRISPR; DHAP, Dihydroxyacetone phosphate; G3P, Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate; Genetics; Glycolysis; Hct, Hematocrit; Hgb, Hemoglobin; Hsp70, Heat shock protein 70; Hsp90, Heat shock protein 90; MCV, Mean Corpuscular Volume; Metabolism; RNAi, RNA interference; TPI Deficiency; TPI Df, Triosephosphate Isomerase Deficiency; TPI, Triosephosphate Isomerase; Triosephosphate isomerase (TPI); UTR, Untranslated Region; WT, Wild-type.

Abstract

Grants and funding