Mechanism of CASK-linked ophthalmological disorders

Calcium/calmodulin-dependent serine protein kinase (CASK) is a membrane-associated guanylate kinase (MAGUK) family protein, which is encoded by a gene of identical name present on the X chromosome. CASK may participate in presynaptic scaffolding, gene expression regulation, and cell junction formation. CASK is essential for survival in mammals. Heterozygous mutations in the CASK gene (in females) produce X-linked intellectual disability (XLID) and mental retardation and microcephaly with pontine and cerebellar hypoplasia (MICPCH, OMIM# 300749). CASK mutations are also frequently associated with optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH) which is the most common cause of childhood blindness in developed countries. Some patients with mutations in CASK have been also diagnosed with optic nerve atrophy (ONA) and glaucoma. We have used floxed CASK (CASKfloxed), CASK heterozygous knockout (CASK(+/-)), CASK neuronal knockout (CASKNKO) and tamoxifen inducible CASK knockout (CASKiKO) mouse models to investigate the mechanism and pathology of CASK-linked ONH. Our observations indicate that ONH occurs with 100% penetrance in CASK(+/-) mice, which also displayed microcephaly and disproportionate cerebellar hypoplasia. Further, we found that CASK-linked ONH is a complex developmental neuropathology with some degenerative components. Cellular pathologies include loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGC), astrogliosis, axonopathy, and synaptopathy. The onset of ONH is late in development, observed only around the early postnatal stage in mice reaching the plateau phase by three weeks of birth. The developmental nature of the disorder is confirmed by deleting CASK after maturity since CASKiKO mice did not produce any obvious optic nerve pathology. Strikingly the CASKfloxed mice expressing ~49% level of CASK did not manifest ONH despite displaying a slightly smaller brain and cerebellar hypoplasia indicating that ONH may not simply be an extension of microcephaly. We discovered that deleting CASK in neurons produced lethality before the onset of adulthood. The CASKNKO mice exhibited delayed myelination of the optic nerve. Overall this work suggests that CASK is critical for neuronal maturation and CASK-linked ONH is a pervasive developmental disorder of the subcortical visual pathway. Finally, in a side project, I also described a new methodology of targeting neurons using receptor-mediated endocytosis which would help target retinal neurons for therapeutic purposes in the future.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biological Sciences

Department dc:contributor.department

Biological Sciences

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Liang, Chen

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Mukherjee, Konark

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Gourdie, Robert G.
• Valdez, Gregorio
• Fox, Michael A.

• CASK
• Optic nerve hypoplasia
• Subcortical visual pathway

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:16968

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/85108