Derivation and expansion using only small molecules of human neural progenitors for neurodegenerative disease modeling

PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e59252. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059252. Epub 2013 Mar 22.

Abstract

Phenotypic drug discovery requires billions of cells for high-throughput screening (HTS) campaigns. Because up to several million different small molecules will be tested in a single HTS campaign, even small variability within the cell populations for screening could easily invalidate an entire campaign. Neurodegenerative assays are particularly challenging because neurons are post-mitotic and cannot be expanded for implementation in HTS. Therefore, HTS for neuroprotective compounds requires a cell type that is robustly expandable and able to differentiate into all of the neuronal subtypes involved in disease pathogenesis. Here, we report the derivation and propagation using only small molecules of human neural progenitor cells (small molecule neural precursor cells; smNPCs). smNPCs are robust, exhibit immortal expansion, and do not require cumbersome manual culture and selection steps. We demonstrate that smNPCs have the potential to clonally and efficiently differentiate into neural tube lineages, including motor neurons (MNs) and midbrain dopaminergic neurons (mDANs) as well as neural crest lineages, including peripheral neurons and mesenchymal cells. These properties are so far only matched by pluripotent stem cells. Finally, to demonstrate the usefulness of smNPCs we show that mDANs differentiated from smNPCs with LRRK2 G2019S are more susceptible to apoptosis in the presence of oxidative stress compared to wild-type. Therefore, smNPCs are a powerful biological tool with properties that are optimal for large-scale disease modeling, phenotypic screening, and studies of early human development.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cell Differentiation / genetics
  • Cell Differentiation / physiology
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Electrophysiology
  • Epithelial Cells / cytology*
  • Epithelial Cells / metabolism*
  • Humans
  • Leucine-Rich Repeat Serine-Threonine Protein Kinase-2
  • Motor Neurons / cytology
  • Motor Neurons / metabolism
  • Neural Crest / cytology
  • Neural Crest / metabolism
  • Neural Stem Cells / cytology*
  • Neural Stem Cells / metabolism*
  • Neurodegenerative Diseases / genetics
  • Neurodegenerative Diseases / metabolism*
  • Neurons / cytology
  • Neurons / metabolism
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / genetics
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / metabolism

Substances

  • LRRK2 protein, human
  • Leucine-Rich Repeat Serine-Threonine Protein Kinase-2
  • Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases

Grants and funding

This work was generously supported by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Research of North Rhine Westphalia as well as the Max Planck Society. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.