Modeling antisense oligonucleotide therapy in MECP2 duplication syndrome human iPSC-derived neurons reveals gene expression programs responsive to MeCP2 levels

Genomic copy-number variations (CNVs) that can cause neurodevelopmental disorders often encompass many genes, which complicates our understanding of how individual genes within a CNV contribute to pathology. MECP2 duplication syndrome (MDS or MRXSL in OMIM; OMIM#300260) is one such CNV disorder caused by duplications spanning methyl CpG-binding protein 2 (MECP2) and other genes on Xq28. Using an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) to normalize MECP2 dosage is sufficient to rescue abnormal neurological phenotypes in mouse models overexpressing MECP2 alone, implicating the importance of increased MECP2 dosage within CNVs of Xq28. However, because MDS CNVs span MECP2 and additional genes, we generated human neurons from multiple MDS patient-derived induced pluripotent cells (iPSCs) to evaluate the benefit of using an ASO against MECP2 in a MDS human neuronal context. Importantly, we identified a signature of genes that is partially and qualitatively modulated upon ASO treatment, pinpointed genes sensitive to MeCP2 function, and altered in a model of Rett syndrome, a neurological disorder caused by loss of MeCP2 function. Furthermore, the signature contained genes that are aberrantly altered in unaffected control human neurons upon MeCP2 depletion, revealing gene expression programs qualitatively sensitive to MeCP2 levels in human neurons. Lastly, ASO treatment led to a partial rescue of abnormal neuronal morphology in MDS neurons. All together, these data demonstrate that ASOs targeting MECP2 benefit human MDS neurons. Moreover, our study establishes a paradigm by which to evaluate the contribution of individual genes within a CNV to pathogenesis and to assess their potential as a therapeutic target.