Journal
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 23, Issue 9, Pages 1067-+Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41593-020-0672-0
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Funding
- NARSAD Young Investigator grant [25248]
- William and Ella Owens Medical Research Foundation
- Rising STARs award from the University of Texas System
- UTHSCSA [NCI-P30CA54174, NIA-P01AG19316]
- [NINDS-R01NS112389]
- [NIDCD-R01DC013157]
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Complement-mediated synapse elimination has emerged as an important process in both brain development and neurological diseases, but whether neurons express complement inhibitors that protect synapses against complement-mediated synapse elimination remains unknown. Here, we show that the sushi domain protein SRPX2 is a neuronally expressed complement inhibitor that regulates complement-dependent synapse elimination. SRPX2 directly binds to C1q and blocks its activity, andSRPX2(-/Y)mice show increased C3 deposition and microglial synapse engulfment. They also show a transient decrease in synapse numbers and increase in retinogeniculate axon segregation in the lateral geniculate nucleus. In the somatosensory cortex,SRPX2(-/Y)mice show decreased thalamocortical synapse numbers and increased spine pruning.C3(-/-);SRPX2(-/Y)double-knockout mice exhibit phenotypes associated withC3(-/-)mice rather thanSRPX2(-/Y)mice, which indicates that C3 is necessary for the effect of SRPX2 on synapse elimination. Together, these results show that SRPX2 protects synapses against complement-mediated elimination in both the thalamus and the cortex. The complement-microglia pathway is a key mediator of synapse elimination in development and disease. Cong et al. show that neurons endogenously express a complement inhibitor, SRPX2, that regulates synapse elimination in development.
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