scholarly journals The role of in vivo fluorescence imaging of transplanted stem cells in regenerative medicine drug discovery research

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-145
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Yukawa ◽  
Yoshinobu Baba
2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 696-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanut Kunkanjanawan ◽  
Richard Carter ◽  
Kwan-Sung Ahn ◽  
Jinjing Yang ◽  
Rangsun Parnpai ◽  
...  

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by an expansion of CAG trinucleotide repeat (polyglutamine [polyQ]) in the huntingtin ( HTT) gene, which leads to the formation of mutant HTT (mHTT) protein aggregates. In the nervous system, an accumulation of mHTT protein results in glutamate-mediated excitotoxicity, proteosome instability, and apoptosis. Although HD pathogenesis has been extensively studied, effective treatment of HD has yet to be developed. Therapeutic discovery research in HD has been reported using yeast, cells derived from transgenic animal models and HD patients, and induced pluripotent stem cells from patients. A transgenic nonhuman primate model of HD (HD monkey) shows neuropathological, behavioral, and molecular changes similar to an HD patient. In addition, neural progenitor cells (NPCs) derived from HD monkeys can be maintained in culture and differentiated to neural cells with distinct HD cellular phenotypes including the formation of mHTT aggregates, intranuclear inclusions, and increased susceptibility to oxidative stress. Here, we evaluated the potential application of HD monkey NPCs and neural cells as an in vitro model for HD drug discovery research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 598-610
Author(s):  
Nileshkumar Meghani ◽  
Beom-Jin Lee ◽  
Hardik Amin ◽  
Behzad Nili-Ahmadabadi ◽  
Saraswathy Nagendran

For a number of decades, schistosomiasis has remained a public threat and an economic burden in a number of countries, directly impacting over 200 million people. The past 15 years have seen tremendous progress in the development of high-throughput methods for targeting or compound selection that are vital to early-stage schistosome drug discovery research. Genomewide approaches to analyze gene expression at the transcriptional and other -omic levels have helped immensely for gaining insight into the pathways and mechanisms involved in the schistosomiasis and it is expected to revolutionize the drug discovery as well as related diagnostics. This review discusses the most recent progress of pharmacology and genomics concerning schistosomiasis with a focus on drug discovery and diagnostic tools. It also provides chemical structural insights of promising targets along with available in vitro and/or in vivo data. Although significant research has been done to identify new molecules for the treatment and new methods for diagnosis, the necessity of new options for the sustainable control of schistosomiasis remains a great challenge.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristi A. Hohenstein Elliott ◽  
Cory Peterson ◽  
Anuradha Soundararajan ◽  
Natalia Kan ◽  
Brandon Nelson ◽  
...  

Proper maintenance of stem cells is essential for successful utilization of ESCs/iPSCs as tools in developmental and drug discovery studies and in regenerative medicine. Standardization is critical for all future applications of stem cells and necessary to fully understand their potential. This study reports a novel approach for the efficient, consistent expansion of human ESCs and iPSCs using laser sectioning, instead of mechanical devices or enzymes, to divide cultures into defined size clumps for propagation. Laser-mediated propagation maintained the pluripotency, quality, and genetic stability of ESCs/iPSCs and led to enhanced differentiation potential. This approach removes the variability associated with ESC/iPSC propagation, significantly reduces the expertise, labor, and time associated with manual passaging techniques and provides the basis for scalable delivery of standardized ESC/iPSC lines. Adoption of standardized protocols would allow researchers to understand the role of genetics, environment, and/or procedural effects on stem cells and would ensure reproducible production of stem cell cultures for use in clinical/therapeutic applications.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 634-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Kaiser ◽  
Louis Maes ◽  
Leela Pavan Tadoori ◽  
Thomas Spangenberg ◽  
Jean-Robert Ioset

Phenotypic screening had successfully been used for hit generation, especially in the field of neglected diseases, in which feeding the drug pipeline with new chemotypes remains a constant challenge. Here, we catalyze drug discovery research using a publicly available screening tool to boost drug discovery. The Malaria Box, assembled by the Medicines for Malaria Venture, is a structurally diverse set of 200 druglike and 200 probelike compounds distilled from more than 20,000 antimalarial hits from corporate and academic libraries. Repurposing such compounds has already identified new scaffolds against cryptosporidiosis and schistosomiasis. In addition to initiating new hit-to-lead activities, screening the Malaria Box against a plethora of other parasites would enable the community to better understand the similarities and differences between them. We describe the screening of the Malaria Box and triaging of the identified hits against kinetoplastids responsible for human African trypanosomiasis ( Trypanosoma brucei), Chagas disease ( Trypanosoma cruzi), and visceral leishmaniasis ( Leishmania donovani and Leishmania infantum). The in vitro and in vivo profiling of the most promising active compounds with respect to efficacy, toxicity, pharmacokinetics, and complementary druggable properties are presented and a collaborative model used as a way to accelerate the discovery process discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (16) ◽  
pp. 1624-1635
Author(s):  
Jobin Jose ◽  
Aaron Mathew Thomas ◽  
Darewin Mendonsa ◽  
Mohammad M. Al-Sanea ◽  
Md. Sahab Uddin ◽  
...  

Implementation of novel and biocompatible polymers in drug design is an emerging and rapidly growing area of research. Even though we have a large number of polymer materials for various applications, the biocompatibility of these materials remains as a herculean task for researchers. Aptamers provide a vital and efficient solution to this problem. They are usually small (ranging from 20 to 60 nucleotides, single-stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotides which are capable of binding to molecules possessing high affinity and other properties like specificity. This review focuses on different aspects of Aptamers in drug discovery, starting from its preparation methods and covering the recent scenario reported in the literature regarding their use in drug discovery. We address the limitations of Aptamers and provide valuable insights into their future potential in the areas regarding drug discovery research. Finally, we explained the major role of Aptamers like medical imaging techniques, application as synthetic antibodies, and the most recent application, which is in combination with nanomedicines.


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