Nanoparticle-mediated conversion of primary human astrocytes into neurons and oligodendrocytes.

ABSTRACT: Central nervous system (CNS) diseases and injuries are accompanied by reactive gliosis and scarring involving the activation and proliferation of astrocytes to form hypertrophic and dense structures, which present a significant barrier to neural regeneration. Engineering astrocytes to functional neurons or oligodendrocytes may constitute a novel therapeutic strategy for CNS diseases and injuries. Such direct cellular programming has been successfully demonstrated using viral vectors via the transduction of transcriptional factors, such as Sox2, which could program resident astrocytes into neurons in the adult brain and spinal cord, albeit the efficiency was low. Here we report a non-viral nanoparticle-based transfection method to deliver Sox2 or Olig2 into primary human astrocytes and demo

SUBMITTER: Li X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4922536 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature