Affiliations: [a] The Elton Laboratory for Neuroendocrinology; Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Sagol School of Neuroscience and Adams Super Center for Brain Studies, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| [b] The Nancy & Stephen Grand Israel National Center for Personalized Medicine, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| [c] Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong
| [d] Department of Computer Science and Technology, The University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Correspondence:
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Correspondence to: Illana Gozes, PhD, Professor of Clinical Biochemistry, Head, the Dr. Diana and Zelman Elton (Elbaum) Laboratory for Molecular Neuroendocrinology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. Tel.: +972 3 640 7240; Fax: +972 3 640 8541; E-mail: igozes@tauex.tau.ac.il.
Abstract: Background:We recently discovered autism/intellectual disability somatic mutations in postmortem brains, presenting higher frequency in Alzheimer’s disease subjects, compared with the controls. We further revealed high impact cytoskeletal gene mutations, coupled with potential cytoskeleton-targeted repair mechanisms. Objective:The current study was aimed at further discerning if somatic mutations in brain diseases are presented only in the most affected tissue (the brain), or if blood samples phenocopy the brain, toward potential diagnostics. Methods:Variant calling analyses on an RNA-seq database including peripheral blood samples from 85 soldiers (58 controls and 27 with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD) was performed. Results:High (e.g., protein truncating) as well as moderate impact (e.g., single amino acid change) germline and putative somatic mutations in thousands of genes were found. Further crossing the mutated genes with autism, intellectual disability, cytoskeleton, inflammation, and DNA repair databases, identified the highest number of cytoskeletal-mutated genes (187 high and 442 moderate impact). Most of the mutated genes were shared and only when crossed with the inflammation database, more putative high impact mutated genes specific to the PTSD-symptom cohorts versus the controls (14 versus 13) were revealed, highlighting tumor necrosis factor specifically in the PTSD-symptom cohorts. Conclusion:With microtubules and neuro-immune interactions playing essential roles in brain neuroprotection and Alzheimer-related neurodegeneration, the current mutation discoveries contribute to mechanistic understanding of PTSD and brain protection, as well as provide future diagnostics toward personalized military deployment strategies and drug design.
