TY - JOUR
T1 - Aberrant migration features in primary skin fibroblasts of Huntington's disease patients hold potential for unraveling disease progression using an image based machine learning tool
AU - Gharaba, Saja
AU - Shalem, Aviv
AU - Paz, Omri
AU - Muchtar, Noam
AU - Wolf, Lior
AU - Weil, Miguel
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024
PY - 2024/9
Y1 - 2024/9
N2 - Huntington's disease (HD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder with considerable heterogeneity in clinical manifestations. While CAG repeat length is a known predictor of disease severity, this heterogeneity suggests the involvement of additional genetic and environmental factors. Previously we revealed that HD primary fibroblasts exhibit unique features, including distinct nuclear morphology and perturbed actin cap, resembling characteristics seen in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS). This study establishes a link between actin cap deficiency and cell motility in HD, which correlates with the HD patient disease severity. Here, we examined single-cell motility imaging features in HD primary fibroblasts to explore in depth the relationship between cell migration patterns and their respective HD patients' clinical severity status (premanifest, mild and severe). The single-cell analysis revealed a decline in overall cell motility in correlation with HD severity, being most prominent in severe HD subgroup and HGPS. Moreover, we identified seven distinct spatial clusters of cell migration in all groups, which their proportion varies within each group becoming a significant HD severity classifier between HD subgroups. Next, we investigated the relationship between Lamin B1 expression, serving as nuclear envelope morphology marker, and cell motility finding that changes in Lamin B1 levels are associated with specific motility patterns within HD subgroups. Based on these data we present an accurate machine learning classifier offering comprehensive exploration of cellular migration patterns and disease severity markers for future accurate drug evaluation opening new opportunities for personalized treatment approaches in this challenging disorder.
AB - Huntington's disease (HD) is a complex neurodegenerative disorder with considerable heterogeneity in clinical manifestations. While CAG repeat length is a known predictor of disease severity, this heterogeneity suggests the involvement of additional genetic and environmental factors. Previously we revealed that HD primary fibroblasts exhibit unique features, including distinct nuclear morphology and perturbed actin cap, resembling characteristics seen in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS). This study establishes a link between actin cap deficiency and cell motility in HD, which correlates with the HD patient disease severity. Here, we examined single-cell motility imaging features in HD primary fibroblasts to explore in depth the relationship between cell migration patterns and their respective HD patients' clinical severity status (premanifest, mild and severe). The single-cell analysis revealed a decline in overall cell motility in correlation with HD severity, being most prominent in severe HD subgroup and HGPS. Moreover, we identified seven distinct spatial clusters of cell migration in all groups, which their proportion varies within each group becoming a significant HD severity classifier between HD subgroups. Next, we investigated the relationship between Lamin B1 expression, serving as nuclear envelope morphology marker, and cell motility finding that changes in Lamin B1 levels are associated with specific motility patterns within HD subgroups. Based on these data we present an accurate machine learning classifier offering comprehensive exploration of cellular migration patterns and disease severity markers for future accurate drug evaluation opening new opportunities for personalized treatment approaches in this challenging disorder.
KW - Cell migration
KW - Huntington's disease
KW - Image-based high content analysis
KW - Machine learning classifier
KW - Nuclear morphology
KW - Personalized drug screening
KW - Primary skin fibroblast
KW - Single-cell analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85200215861&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2024.108970
DO - 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2024.108970
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C2 - 39096606
AN - SCOPUS:85200215861
SN - 0010-4825
VL - 180
JO - Computers in Biology and Medicine
JF - Computers in Biology and Medicine
M1 - 108970
ER -