Targeted Antisense Oligonucleotide Treatment Rescues Developmental Alterations in Spinal Muscular Atrophy Organoids

Abstract

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a severe neurological disease caused by mutations in the SMN1 gene, characterized by early onset and degeneration of lower motor neurons. Understanding early neurodevelopmental defects in SMA is crucial for optimizing therapeutic interventions. Using spinal cord and cerebral organoids generated from multiple SMA type I donors, we revealed widespread disease mechanisms beyond motor neuron degeneration. Single-cell transcriptomics uncovered pervasive alterations across neural populations, from progenitors to neurons, demonstrating SMN-dependent dysregulation of neuronal differentiation programs. Multi-electrode array analysis identified consistent hyperexcitability in both spinal and brain organoids, establishing altered electrical properties as a central nervous system-wide feature of pathogenesis. Early administration of an optimized antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) that restored SMN levels rescued morphological and functional deficits in spinal cord organoids across different genetic backgrounds. Importantly, this early intervention precisely corrected aberrant splicing in newly identified SMN1 targets enriched at critical nodes of neuronal differentiation. Our findings demonstrate that early developmental defects are core features of SMA pathogenesis that can be prevented by timely therapeutic intervention, providing new insights for optimizing treatment strategies.