scholarly journals Recent Overview of the Use of iPSCs Huntington’s Disease Modeling and Therapy

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 2239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Csobonyeiova ◽  
Stefan Polak ◽  
Lubos Danisovic

Huntington’s disease (HD) is an inherited, autosomal dominant, degenerative disease characterized by involuntary movements, cognitive decline, and behavioral impairment ending in death. HD is caused by an expansion in the number of CAG repeats in the huntingtin gene on chromosome 4. To date, no effective therapy for preventing the onset or progression of the disease has been found, and many symptoms do not respond to pharmacologic treatment. However, recent results of pre-clinical trials suggest a beneficial effect of stem-cell-based therapy. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) represent an unlimited cell source and are the most suitable among the various types of autologous stem cells due to their patient specificity and ability to differentiate into a variety of cell types both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, the cultivation of iPSC-derived neural cells offers the possibility of studying the etiopathology of neurodegenerative diseases, such as HD. Moreover, differentiated neural cells can organize into three-dimensional (3D) organoids, mimicking the complex architecture of the brain. In this article, we present a comprehensive review of recent HD models, the methods for differentiating HD–iPSCs into the desired neural cell types, and the progress in gene editing techniques leading toward stem-cell-based therapy.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  

Huntington’s disease (HD) research is entering an exciting phase, with new approaches such as huntingtin lowering strategies and cell therapies on the horizon. Technological advances to direct the differentiation of stem cells to desired neural types have opened new strategies for restoring damaged neuronal circuits in HD. However, challenges remain in the implementation of cell therapy approaches for patients suffering from HD. Cell therapies, together with other invasive approaches including allele specific oligonucleotides (ASOs) and viral delivery of huntingtin-lowering agents, require direct delivery of the therapeutic agents locally into the brain or cerebrospinal fluid. Delivering substances directly into the brain is complex and presents multiple challenges, including those related to regulatory requirements, safety and efficacy, surgical instrumentation, trial design, patient profiles, and selection of suitable and sensitive primary and secondary outcomes. In addition, production of clinical grade cell-based medicinal products also requires adherence to regulatory standards with extensive quality control of the protocols and cell products across different laboratories and production centers. Currently, there is no consensus on how best to address these challenges. Here we describe the formation of Stem Cells For Huntington’s Disease (SC4HD: https://www.sc4hd.org/), a network of researchers and clinicians working to develop guidance and greater standardization for the HD field for stem cell based transplantation therapy for HD with a mission to work to develop criteria and guidance for development of a neural intra-cerebral stem cell-based therapy for HD.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Kosi ◽  
Dinko Mitrečić

AbstractNeurological diseases are recognized as one of the most significant burdens of the modern society. Therefore, a new therapeutic approach applicable to nervous system represents priority of today’s medicine. A rapid development of stem cell technology in the last two decades introduced a possibility to regenerate disease-affected nervous tissue. In this vein, stem cells are envisioned as a replacement for lost neurons, a source of trophic support, a therapeutic vehicle, and as a tool for in vitro modeling. This article reviews the current concepts in stem cell-based therapy of neurological diseases and comments ongoing efforts aiming at clinical translation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui-Juan Lu ◽  
Juan Li ◽  
Guodong Yang ◽  
Cun-Jian Yi ◽  
Daping Zhang ◽  
...  

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a special class of endogenous RNAs with a wide variety of pathophysiological functions via diverse mechanisms, including transcription, miRNA sponge, protein sponge/decoy, and translation. Stem cells are pluripotent cells with unique properties of self-renewal and differentiation. Dysregulated circRNAs identified in various stem cell types can affect stem cell self-renewal and differentiation potential by manipulating stemness. However, the emerging roles of circRNAs in stem cells remain largely unknown. This review summarizes the major functions and mechanisms of action of circRNAs in stem cell biology and disease progression. We also highlight circRNAs-mediated common pathways in diverse stem cell types and discuss their diagnostic significance with respect to stem cell-based therapy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (14) ◽  
pp. 4852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shima Masoudi Asil ◽  
Jyoti Ahlawat ◽  
Gileydis Guillama Barroso ◽  
Mahesh Narayan

In addition to adverse health outcomes, neurological disorders have serious societal and economic impacts on patients, their family and society as a whole. There is no definite treatment for these disorders, and current available drugs only slow down the progression of the disease. In recent years, application of stem cells has been widely advanced due to their potential of self-renewal and differentiation to different cell types which make them suitable candidates for cell therapy. In particular, this approach offers great opportunities for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. However, some major issues related to stem-cell therapy, including their tumorigenicity, viability, safety, metastases, uncontrolled differentiation and possible immune response have limited their application in clinical scales. To address these challenges, a combination of stem-cell therapy with nanotechnology can be a solution. Nanotechnology has the potential of improvement of stem-cell therapy by providing ideal substrates for large scale proliferation of stem cells. Application of nanomaterial in stem-cell culture will be also beneficial to modulation of stem-cell differentiation using nanomedicines. Nanodelivery of functional compounds can enhance the efficiency of neuron therapy by stem cells and development of nanobased techniques for real-time, accurate and long-lasting imaging of stem-cell cycle processes. However, these novel techniques need to be investigated to optimize their efficiency in treatment of neurologic diseases.


Author(s):  
Nidhi Puranik ◽  
Ananta Prasad Arukha ◽  
Shiv Kumar Yadav ◽  
Dhananjay Yadav ◽  
Jun O Jin

: Several human neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Huntington’s disease, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and brain stroke, are caused by the injury to neurons or glial cells. The recent years have witnessed the successful generation of neurons and glia cells driving efforts to develop stem-cell-based therapies for patients to combat a broad spectrum of human neurological diseases. The inadequacy of suitable cell types for cell replacement therapy in patients suffering from neurological disorders have hampered the development of this promising therapeutic approach. Attempts are thus being made to reconstruct viable neurons and glial cells from different stem cells such as the embryonic stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, and neural stem cells. Dedicated research to cultivate stem cell-based brain transplantation therapies have been carried out. We aim at compiling the breakthroughs in the field of stem cell-based therapy for the treatment of neurodegenerative maladies, emphasizing on the shortcomings faced, victories achieved, and the future prospects of the therapy in clinical settings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 128 (6) ◽  
pp. 775-801
Author(s):  
Giulia Campostrini ◽  
Laura M. Windt ◽  
Berend J. van Meer ◽  
Milena Bellin ◽  
Christine L. Mummery

The ability of human pluripotent stem cells to form all cells of the body has provided many opportunities to study disease and produce cells that can be used for therapy in regenerative medicine. Even though beating cardiomyocytes were among the first cell types to be differentiated from human pluripotent stem cell, cardiac applications have advanced more slowly than those, for example, for the brain, eye, and pancreas. This is, in part, because simple 2-dimensional human pluripotent stem cell cardiomyocyte cultures appear to need crucial functional cues normally present in the 3-dimensional heart structure. Recent tissue engineering approaches combined with new insights into the dialogue between noncardiomyocytes and cardiomyocytes have addressed and provided solutions to issues such as cardiomyocyte immaturity and inability to recapitulate adult heart values for features like contraction force, electrophysiology, or metabolism. Three-dimensional bioengineered heart tissues are thus poised to contribute significantly to disease modeling, drug discovery, and safety pharmacology, as well as provide new modalities for heart repair. Here, we review the current status of 3-dimensional engineered heart tissues.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (22) ◽  
pp. 4416-4428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanying Liu ◽  
Fangfang Qiao ◽  
Patricia C Leiferman ◽  
Alan Ross ◽  
Evelyn H Schlenker ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heiko Lemcke ◽  
Natalia Voronina ◽  
Gustav Steinhoff ◽  
Robert David

During the past decades, stem cell-based therapy has acquired a promising role in regenerative medicine. The application of novel cell therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases could potentially achieve the ambitious aim of effective cardiac regeneration. Despite the highly positive results from preclinical studies, data from phase I/II clinical trials are inconsistent and the improvement of cardiac remodeling and heart performance was found to be quite limited. The major issues which cardiac stem cell therapy is facing include inefficient cell delivery to the site of injury, accompanied by low cell retention and weak effectiveness of remaining stem cells in tissue regeneration. According to preclinical and clinical studies, various stem cells (adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells) represent the most promising cell types so far. Beside the selection of the appropriate cell type, researchers have developed several strategies to produce “second-generation” stem cell products with improved regenerative capacity. Genetic and nongenetic modifications, chemical and physical preconditioning, and the application of biomaterials were found to significantly enhance the regenerative capacity of transplanted stem cells. In this review, we will give an overview of the recent developments in stem cell engineering with the goal to facilitate stem cell delivery and to promote their cardiac regenerative activity.


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