Effects of Diras2-knockdown in murine hippocampal primary cells

Attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a clinically heterogeneous childhood behavioral neurodevelopmental disorder which is highly persistent into adulthood and shows an heritability up to 80%. In previous studies, our group delineated the 9q22 region by both linkage studies and genome-wide association studies as a candidate locus for ADHD. This region harbors the DIRAS2 (MIM: 607863) gene which is coding for a Ras GTPase. To get more knowledge about the role of Diras2 in the brain, an adeno-associated virus (AAV) was used for a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) induced knock-down of Diras2 gene expression in mouse hippocampal primary cells. To identify possible targets of Diras2 and signalling cascades in which Diras2 might play a role, GeneChip Mouse Gene 2.0 ST Arrays (Affymetrix) were used for expression profiling of the RNA samples. We examined the effects of a Diras2 knock-down on gene expression in murine hippocampal cells.