Novel ADNP syndrome mice reveal dramatic sex-specific peripheral gene expression with brain synaptic and Tau pathologies.

Essential for brain formation and function, activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP) is a major autism gene. Here, a novel Tyr mouse carrying p.Tyr718* mutation (homologous to the most common ADNP syndrome p.Tyr719*) was generated using CRISPR-Cas9. Adnp p.Tyr718* inhibited early mouse development and showed sex-dependent gait deficits. Delayed speech acquisition was translated to sex-specific mouse syntax abnormalities. Mechanistically, dendritic spine densities/morphologies were significantly decreased in Tyr mice. All mentioned impediments were ameliorated by daily treatments with the ADNP fragment, drug candidate, NAP. Early onset tauopathy was male-specific (hippocampus and visual cortex) mimicking the human condition, paralleled by impaired visual evoked potentials and corrected by acute NAP treatment. RNA-sequencing of spleens revealed a comprehensive effect only on females, with 5 transcripts (SMOX, ARRB1, ADCY6, FOXO3, CPXM1), shared as deregulated by different human patient-derived ADNP mutated lymphoblastoid cell lines. With FOXO3 implicated in apoptosis and steroid synthesis, these changes, converging on AKT1, were further translated to sex-specific microbiota signatures. The Tyr mouse is thus a valid model for the ADNP syndrome, with a human-like pathology. NAP’s corrective effects attest to specificity, leading to future drug development with objective biomarkers, including rapidly responsive visual evoked potentials, blood proteomics and microbiota signatures. Samples include 14 week-mouse male and female spleens, wild-type or mutated ADNP (p.Tyr718*) and NAP treated or untreated, in triplicates.