Reprogramming astroglia into neurons with hallmarks of fast-spiking parvalbumin-positive interneurons by phospho-site-deficient Ascl1.

Abstract

Cellular reprogramming of mammalian glia to an induced neuronal fate holds the potential for restoring diseased brain circuits. While the proneural factor <i>achaete-scute complex-like 1</i> (<i>Ascl1</i>) is widely used for neuronal reprogramming, in the early postnatal mouse cortex, <i>Ascl1</i> fails to induce the glia-to-neuron conversion, instead promoting the proliferation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPC). Since Ascl1 activity is posttranslationally regulated, here, we investigated the consequences of mutating six serine phospho-acceptor sites to alanine (Ascl1SA6) on lineage reprogramming in vivo. Ascl1SA6 exhibited increased neurogenic activity in the glia of the early postnatal mouse cortex, an effect enhanced by coexpression of <i>B cell lymphoma 2</i> (<i>Bcl2</i>). Genetic fate-mapping revealed that most induced neurons originated from astrocytes, while only a few derived from OPCs. Many Ascl1SA6/Bcl2-induced neurons expressed parvalbumin and were capable of high-frequency action potential firing. Our study demonstrates the authentic conversion of astroglia into neurons featuring subclass hallmarks of cortical interneurons, advancing our scope of engineering neuronal fates in the brain.