Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by a gradual loss of cognitive and physical functions. Medications for these disorders are limited and treat the symptoms only. There are no disease-modifying therapies available, which have been shown to slow or stop the continuing loss of neurons. Transdifferentiation, whereby somatic cells are reprogrammed into another lineage without going through an intermediate proliferative pluripotent stem cell stage, provides an alternative strategy for regenerative medicine and disease modeling. In particular, the transdifferentiation of somatic cells into specific subset of patient-specific neuronal cells offers alternative autologous cell therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative disorders and presents a rich source of using diverse somatic cell types for relevant applications in translational, personalized medicine, as well as human mechanistic study, new drug-target identification, and novel drug screening systems. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of the recent development of transdifferentiation research, with particular attention to chemical-induced transdifferentiation and perspectives for modeling and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

Details

Title
Transdifferentiation: a new promise for neurodegenerative diseases
Author
Mollinari, Cristiana 1 ; Zhao, Jian 2 ; Lupacchini, Leonardo 3 ; Garaci, Enrico 4 ; Merlo, Daniela 5 ; Pei, Gang 6 

 Department of Neuroscience, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy; Institute of Translational Pharmacology, National Research Council, Rome, Italy 
 Translational Medical Center for Stem Cell Therapy, Shanghai East Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; School of Life Science and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China 
 IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, Rome, Italy 
 IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, Rome, Italy; University San Raffaele, Rome, Italy 
 Department of Neuroscience, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy 
 School of Life Science and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China; State Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, P. R. China 
Pages
1-9
Publication year
2018
Publication date
Aug 2018
Publisher
Springer Nature B.V.
e-ISSN
20414889
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2084328556
Copyright
© 2018. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.