Small fibre neuropathy in Fabry disease: a human-derived neuronal in vitro disease model

Acral burning pain triggered by fever, thermal hyposensitivity, and skin denervation are hallmarks of small fibre neuropathy in Fabry disease, a life-threatening X-linked lysosomal storage disorder. Variants in the gene encoding alpha-galactosidase A may lead to impaired enzyme activity with cellular accumulation of globotriaosylceramide (Gb3). To study the underlying pathomechanism of Fabry-associated small fibre neuropathy, we generated a neuronal in vitro disease model using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells from three Fabry patients and one healthy control. We further generated an isogenic control line via CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing. We subjected iPSC to targeted peripheral neuronal differentiation and observed intra-lysosomal Gb3 accumulations in somas and neurites of Fabry sensory neurons using super-resolution microscopy. At functional level, patch-clamp analysis revealed a hyperpolarizing shift of voltage-gated sodium channel steady-state inactivation kinetics in Fabry cell lines as compared to the healthy control. Moreover, we demonstrate a drastic increase in Fabry sensory neuron Ca2+ levels at 39{degrees}C mimicking clinical fever (p < 0.001). This pathophysiological phenotype was accompanied by thinning of neurite calibres in sensory neurons obtained from Fabry patients compared to healthy control cells (p < 0.001). Linear-Nonlinear cascade models fit to spiking responses revealed that Fabry cell lines exhibit altered single neuron encoding properties relative to control. We further observed jam of mitochondrial trafficking at sphingolipid accumulations within Fabry sensory neurites utilizing a click-chemistry approach together with mitochondrial dysmorphism compared to healthy control cells. We pioneer insights into the cellular mechanisms contributing to pain, thermal hyposensitivity, and denervation in Fabry small fibre neuropathy, and pave the way for further mechanistic in vitro studies in Fabry disease and the development of novel treatment approaches.