Age-modified cells and methods for making age-modified cells

Abstract

Provided are age-modified cells and method for making age modified cells using progerin or a progerin-like protein. The aging and / or maturation process can be accelerated and controlled for young and / or immature cells, such as a somatic cell, a stem cell, a stem cell-derived somatic cell, including an induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cell, by contacting with progerin or a progerin-like protein. Methods described by the present disclosure can produce age-appropriate cells from a somatic cell or a stem cell, such as an old cell and / or a mature cell. Such age-modified cells constitute model systems for the study of late-onset diseases and / or disorders.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a Divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14 / 884,503, filed Oct. 15, 2015, which is a Continuation of International Patent Application No. PCT / US2014 / 034435, filed Apr. 16, 2014, and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 812,464, filed on Apr. 16, 2013, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 907,262, filed on Nov. 21, 2013, the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety herein, and to each of which priority is claimed.GRANT INFORMATION[0002]The work described in this disclosure was funded in part by an NSF fellowship, DGE-1144470. The U.S. government may have certain rights in this disclosure.SEQUENCE LISTING[0003]The specification further incorporates by reference the Sequence Listing submitted herewith via EFS on Apr. 2, 2018. Pursuant to 37 C.F.R. § 1.52(e)(5), the Sequence Listing text file, identified as “072734_0679SEQ.TXT,” is 11,504 bytes and was cr...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes how a protein called progerin-like protein can be used to speed up the aging and maturation of cells. This allows researchers to create cells that model late-onset diseases, which are often difficult to study properly. The technique could be useful for studying certain cancers and other degenerative conditions.

Problems solved by technology

For example, neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD) or Alzheimer's disease (AD) are becoming a growing burden to society.

Only symptomatic relief is available, limited in terms of both the symptoms treated and the duration of its effectiveness, highlighting the need for novel preventive and therapeutic approaches.

Late-onset neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD) are becoming a growing burden to society due to the gradual increase in life expectancy.

A problem in addressing the global aspects of aging and rejuvenation during cell reprogramming and differentiation is the identification of markers that reliably predict the chronological age of the somatic cell donor and the corresponding cellular age of iPSC derivatives.

The ability to measure and manipulate age in cells differentiated from iPSCs represents a fundamental challenge in pluripotent stem cell research that remains unresolved to date.

There has been considerable progress in directing cell fate into the various derivatives of all three germ layers; however, there has been no technology to switch the age of a given cell type on demand from embryonic to neonatal, adult or aged status.

This remains a major impediment in the field as illustrated by the persistent failure to generate hiPSC-derived adult-like hematopoietic stem cells, fully functional cardiomyocytes, or mature pancreatic islets and the general inability to derive aged cell types that are age-appropriate and / or stage-appropriate for modeling late-onset diseases.

iPSC models of late-onset disorders such as PD do not adequately reflect the severe degenerative pathology of the disease.

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