The effect of a dominant kinase-dead Csf1r mutation associated with adult-onset leukoencephalopathy on brain development and neuropathology

Amino acid substitutions in the kinase domain of the human CSF1R protein are associated with autosomal dominant adult-onset leukoencephalopathy with axonal spheroids and pigmented glia (ALSP). To model the human disease, we created a disease-associated mutation (Glu631Lys; E631K) in the mouse Csf1r locus. Previous analysis demonstrated that heterozygous mutation ( Csf1r ^E631K/+ ) had a dominant inhibitory effect on CSF1R signaling in vitro and in vivo but did not recapitulate the pathology of the human disease. We speculated that leukoencephalopathy in humans requires an environmental trigger and/or epistatic interaction with common neurodegenerative disease-associated alleles. Here we examine the impact of heterozygous Csf1r mutation on microglial phenotype, normal postnatal brain development, age-related changes in gene expression and on two distinct pathologies in which microgliosis is a prominent feature, prion disease and experimental autoimmune encephalitis (EAE). The heterozygous Csf1r ^E631K/+ mutation reduced microglial abundance and the expression of microglial-associated transcripts relative to wild-type controls at 12 weeks and 43 weeks of age but had no selective effect on homeostatic markers such as P2ry12 . An epistatic interaction was demonstrated between Csf1r ^E631K/+ and Cxc3r1 ^EGFP/+ genotypes leading to dysregulated microglial and neuronal gene expression in both hippocampus and striatum. Heterozygous Csf1r ^E631K mutation reduced the microgliosis associated with both diseases. There was no significant impact on disease severity or progression in prion disease. In EAE, induced expression of inflammation-associated transcripts in the hippocampus and striatum was suppressed in parallel with microglia-specific transcripts, but spinal cord demyelination was exacerbated. The results support a dominant-negative model of CSF1R-associated leukoencephalopathy and likely contributions of an environmental trigger and/or genetic background to neuropathology.