Fig. 4

Pathogenic mutations affect CNTNAP2 processing. a Schematic of CNTNAP2 protein and locations of pathogenic mutations found in ASD patients. Mutations predicted deleterious or at conserved sites are noted in red. ADAM10/17-mediated α-cleavage affected by the mutations was summarized in the brackets (10 = ADAM10, 17 = ADAM17; slight affections are noted in purple, while severe impacts are marked in red). SP signal peptide, DISC discoidin-like domain, L1-4 four laminin A-like G domains, FBG fibrinogen-like domain, E1-2 two epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like domains, TM transmembrane domain; 4.1b, 4.1 binding domain; PDZb, PSD-95/Discs large/zona occludens-1 (PDZ) binding domain. Braces represent three lobes of CNTNAP2 protein. The figure is to scale. b, c CNTNAP2 mutations affected expression patterns of CNTNAP2 full-length and CTFs. CNTNAP2 plasmids were co-transfected with GFP into HEK cells. n = 3 independent experiments, ordinary one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test, *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ****p < 0.0001. d, e Altered α-secretase cleavage in CNTNAP2 mutations. CNTNAP2 plasmids were co-transfected with empty vector (EV), ADAM10 (AD10), or ADAM17 (AD17) plasmids into HEK cells. Mutations showed variant cleavage patterns. Three blots show samples from the same experiment. The blots were processed in parallel and scanned together simultaneously. n = 3 independent experiments, two-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test (compare ADAM10 and ADAM17 with Control for each plasmid), row factor = mutation, column factor = ADAM10/17 overexpression. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; ****p < 0.0001. All the results are expressed as mean ± SEM