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. 2015 Oct 15;10(10):e0140638.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140638. eCollection 2015.

Increased Cortical Inhibition in Autism-Linked Neuroligin-3R451C Mice Is Due in Part to Loss of Endocannabinoid Signaling

Affiliations

Increased Cortical Inhibition in Autism-Linked Neuroligin-3R451C Mice Is Due in Part to Loss of Endocannabinoid Signaling

Haley E Speed et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

A single, maternally inherited, X-linked point mutation leading to an arginine to cysteine substitution at amino acid 451 (R451C) of Neuroligin 3 (NLGN3R451C) is a likely cause of autism in two brothers. Knockin mice expressing the Nlgn3R451C mutation in place of wild-type Nlgn3 demonstrate increased inhibitory synaptic strength in somatosensory cortex, resulting in an excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) imbalance that is potentially relevant for autism-associated behavioral deficits characteristic of these mice. We have replicated the increase in evoked inhibitory postsynaptic currents (eIPSCs) onto layer II/III cortical pyramidal neurons. We also find that increased frequency of spontaneous mIPSCs in Nlgn3R451C mice occurs in the absence of action potential-driven transmission. This suggests the E/I imbalance is due to changes at the synapse level, as opposed to the network level. Next, we use paired whole-cell recordings in an attempt to identify specific interneuron subtypes affected by the Nlgn3R451C mutation. Curiously, we observe no change in the amplitude of cell-to-cell, unitary IPSCs (uIPSCs) from parvalbumin-positive (PV) or somatostatin-positive (SOM) interneurons onto pyramidal neurons. We also observe no change in the number or density of PV and SOM interneurons in LII/III of somatosensory cortex. This effectively rules out a role for these particular interneurons in the increased inhibitory synaptic transmission, pointing to perhaps alternative interneuron subtypes. Lastly, impaired endocannabinoid signaling has been implicated in hippocampal synaptic dysfunction in Nlgn3R451C mice, but has not been investigated at cortical synapses. We find that bath application of the CB1 antagonist, AM 251 in WT mice eliminates the Nlgn3R451C increase in eIPSC amplitude and mIPSC frequency, indicating that increased inhibitory transmission in mutant mice is due, at least in part, to a loss of endocannabinoid signaling through CB1 receptors likely acting at interneurons other than PV or SOM.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Increased inhibitory synaptic transmission at LII/III synapses from Nlgn3R451C mice.
mIPSC frequency (A), but not amplitude (B) of spontaneous inhibitory transmission in the presence of 1 μM TTX is increased Nlgn3R451C mice (WT = 39, Nlgn3R451C = 32). Inset: 15s raw trace from a WT (top) and Nlgn3R451C (bottom) mouse. Scale bar: 25 pA; 0.5 s. C) The input/output (I/O) relationship of eIPSC amplitude to stimulus intensity is stronger in Nlgn3R451C mice compared to WT controls (WT = 33, Nlgn3R451C = 30). * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Firing properties of PV, SOM, and PYR neurons are not affected by the Nlgn3R451C mutation.
Raw traces of action potentials from (A) PV, (B) SOM, and (C) PYR neurons from WT (top) and Nlgn3R451C (bottom) mice in response to a 125 pA step (represented by square pulse beneath each trace) above firing threshold. Scale bars: 25 mV; 50 ms. No difference is observed between Nlgn3R451C and WT mice in the number of action potentials fired at 0–125 pA steps above firing threshold for PV (D), SOM (E), or PYR (F) neurons (PV: WT = 33, Nlgn3R451C = 38; SOM: WT = 31, Nlgn3R451C = 29; PYR: WT = 48, Nlgn3R451C = 50). Inset: IR-DIC images taken with a 40X objective and 2X magnification of each respective cell type. Scale bar = 25 μm.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Bidirectional unitary postsynaptic responses at PV → PYR synapses are normal in Nlgn3R451C mice.
A) Simplified schematic of a PV → PYR synapse. B) Representative traces averaged from 20 consecutive sweeps (including failures). A short 20 Hz train of 5 action potentials is elicited from the presynaptic PV interneuron (in voltage clamp, top) and unitary IPSC (uIPSCs) are recorded from the postsynaptic pyramidal neuron (WT = middle; Nlgn3R451C = bottom). Scale bars: 500 pA (PV), 25 pA (PYR); 25 ms. C) Scatter plot of uIPSC1 amplitude for each connected pair from WT (n = 34) and Nlgn3R451C (n = 29). D) Scatter plot of uEPSC1 of connected PYR → PV pairs showing no difference in excitatory transmission onto PV interneurons between WT (n = 19) and Nlgn3R451C (n = 12).
Fig 4
Fig 4. Bidirectional SOM → PYR unitary postsynaptic responses are unaffected by Nlgn3R451C mutation.
A) Simplified schematic of a SOM → PYR synapse. B) Representative traces averaged from 20 consecutive sweeps (including failures). A short 20 Hz train of 5 action potentials is elicited from the presynaptic SOM interneuron (in voltage clamp, top) and uIPSCs are recorded from the postsynaptic pyramidal neuron (WT = middle; Nlgn3R451C = bottom). Scale bars: 600 pA (SOM), 10 pA (PYR); 25 ms. C) Scatter plot of uIPSC1 amplitude for each connected pair from WT (n = 23) and Nlgn3R451C (n = 24). D) Scatter plot of uEPSC1 of connected PYR → SOM pairs showing no difference in excitatory transmission onto SOM interneurons between WT (n = 10) and Nlgn3R451C (n = 21).
Fig 5
Fig 5. Number of PV and SOM interneurons is unaffected by the Nlgn3R451C mutation.
A) Representative image of DAB stained parvalbumin-positive cells with a Nissl counterstain in the somatosensory cortex. Scale bar = 50 μm. B) Representative image of DAB stained somatostatin-positive cells with a Nissl counterstain in the somatosensory cortex. Scale bar = 50 μm. C) The number of parvalbumin or somatostatin positive cells in the Nlgn3R451C mutant somatosensory cortex counted using stereology and shown as percent of WT. WT = 10 mice, Nlgn3R451C = 10 mice.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Tonic endocannabinoid signaling is decreased at cortical inhibitory synapses in Nlgn3R451C mice.
Mean amplitude (A) and frequency (B) of mIPSCs recorded in the presence of 1 μM TTX and 10 μM AM 251 from pyramidal neurons of WT (n = 23) and Nlgn3R451C (n = 23) mice. Inset: 15 s raw traces from WT (top) and Nlgn3R451C (bottom) pyramidal neurons. Scale bar = 25 pA, 0.5 s. C) The Nlgn3R451C-mediated increase in mIPSC frequency is occluded by bath application of AM 251 to neurons from WT mice (WT + AM 251 = 23, Nlgn3R451C = 32). D) Input/output curves recorded in the presence of 10 μM AM 251 using the same range of stimulus intensities as in Fig 1C (WT = 22, Nlgn3R451C = 23). Mean Amplitude (E) and frequency (F) of mIPSCs recorded in the presence of CB1 receptor agonist ACEA (10 μM; WT = 24, Nlgn3R451C = 25).* P < 0.05.

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