Williams–Beuren syndrome (WBS) is a rare genetic multisystemic disorder characterized by mild-to-moderate intellectual disability and hypersocial phenotype, while the most life-threatening features are cardiovascular abnormalities. Nowadays, there are no pharmacological treatments to directly ameliorate the main traits of WBS. The endocannabinoid system (ECS), given its relevance for both cognitive and cardiovascular function, could be a potential druggable target in this syndrome. We analyzed the components of the ECS in the complete deletion (CD) mouse model of WBS and assessed the impact of its pharmacological modulation in key phenotypes relevant for WBS. CD mice showed the characteristic hypersociable phenotype with no preference for social novelty and poor short-term object-recognition performance. Brain cannabinoid type-1 receptor (CB1R) in CD male mice showed alterations in density and coupling with no detectable change in main endocannabinoids. Endocannabinoid signaling modulation with subchronic (10 days) JZL184, a selective inhibitor of monoacylglycerol lipase, specifically normalized the social and cognitive phenotype of CD mice. Notably, JZL184 treatment improved cardiovascular function and restored gene expression patterns in cardiac tissue. These results reveal the modulation of the ECS as a promising novel therapeutic approach to improve key phenotypic alterations in WBS.

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Background: Neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA) represents a group of neurodegenerative disorders characterized by abnormal iron accumulation and the presence of axonal spheroids in the brain. In Parkinson's Disease (PD), iron accumulation is a cardinal feature of degenerating regions in the brain and seems to be a key player in mechanisms that precipitate cell death. Objectives: The aim of this present study was to comprehensively explore the genetic and genomic connection between NBIA and PD etiology. Methods: We screened the presence of known and rare pathogenic mutations in autosomal dominant and recessive genes linked to NBIA in a total of 4,481 PD cases and 10,253 controls from the Accelerating Medicines Partnership Parkinsons Disease Program and the UKBiobank. We further examined whether a genetic burden of NBIA variants contributes to PD risk through single-gene, gene-set, and single-variant association analyses. To investigate the potential effect of NBIA gene expression on PD, we assessed publicly available expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) data through Summary-based Mendelian Randomization and conducted transcriptomic analyses in blood of 1,886 PD cases and 1,285 controls. Results: Out of 28 previously reported NBIA screened coding variants, four missense were found to be associated with PD risk at a nominal p value < 0.05 (p.T402M-ATP13A2, p.T207M-FA2H, p.P60L-C19orf12, p.C422S-PANK2). No enrichment of heterozygous variants in NBIA-related genes risk was identified in PD cases versus controls. Burden analyses did not reveal a cumulative effect of rare NBIA genetic variation on PD risk. Transcriptomic analyses suggested that DCAF17 is differentially expressed in blood from PD cases and controls. Conclusions: Taking into account the very low mutation occurrence in the datasets and the lack of replication, our analyses suggest that NBIA and PD may be separate molecular entities, supporting the notion that the mechanisms underpinning iron accumulation in PD are likely not shared with NBIA. Elevated nigral iron levels may not contribute to PD etiology and may vary with anti-parkinsonian drugs used for treatment, environmental factors, or iron sequestration in tissue as a response to PD pathological change.

Neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA) represents a group of neurodegenerative disorders characterized by abnormal iron accumulation in the brain. In Parkinson’s Disease (PD), iron accumulation is a cardinal feature of degenerating regions in the brain and seems to be a key player in mechanisms that precipitate cell death. The aim of this study was to explore the genetic and genomic connection between NBIA and PD. We screened for known and rare pathogenic mutations in autosomal dominant and recessive genes linked to NBIA in a total of 4481 PD cases and 10,253 controls from the Accelerating Medicines Partnership Parkinsons’ Disease Program and the UKBiobank. We examined whether a genetic burden of NBIA variants contributes to PD risk through single-gene, gene-set, and single-variant association analyses. In addition, we assessed publicly available expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) data through Summary-based Mendelian Randomization and conducted transcriptomic analyses in blood of 1886 PD cases and 1285 controls. Out of 29 previously reported NBIA screened coding variants, four were associated with PD risk at a nominal p value < 0.05. No enrichment of heterozygous variants in NBIA-related genes risk was identified in PD cases versus controls. Burden analyses did not reveal a cumulative effect of rare NBIA genetic variation on PD risk. Transcriptomic analyses suggested that DCAF17 is differentially expressed in blood from PD cases and controls. Due to low mutation occurrence in the datasets and lack of replication, our analyses suggest that NBIA and PD may be separate molecular entities.

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