Description:
Use of Sphingolipids in cell culture to inhibit pluripotent stem cell-derived teratoma formation
The current state of the art:
Stem cells are capable of self-renewal into more and differentiation specialized cells, making them one of the most promising restorative medicine. However, the pluripotent stem cells can form fast-growing, noncancerous tumors called teratomas, which has impeded the development of stem cells into regenerative medicines.
The problems of the current art:
There are some experimental methods to inhibit teratoma formation. For example, beam radiation, transgene expression, and small molecules have been explored in preclinical models. However, strategies in human stem cell therapies are not available yet.
The advantage of our invention:
The scientists at AU developed a cell culture method with human sphingolipids, ceramide and sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), to inhibit pluripotent stem cells-derived-teratoma formation. Ceramide and its analogs such as S18 induced cell death of the pluripotent stem cells that are capable to form teratomas; S1P1 and its analogs such as FTY720 rescued the neural stem cells that react with S18 but do not form teratomas from apoptosis. As a result, neural stem cells can differentiate into oligodendrocytes precursors or oligodendrocytes without forming teratomas after transplantation in vivo.
The current invention can be used in human cell therapy or gene therapy to treat neural disease or disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, nervous system injuries that arise from spinal cord injuries, stroke, or other neural trauma, and neural disease and damage
AURI # 2007-014
IP status: US7985586B2
Inventor: Erhard Bieberich, PhD https://www.augusta.edu/mcg/dnrm/faculty/bieberich.php
Figure Three subpopulations of EB-derived cells.