139 results about "Astrocyte cells" patented technology

Methods, compositions and kits for producing functional neurons, astroctyes, oligodendrocytes and progenitor cells thereof are provided. These methods, compositions and kits find use in producing neurons, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and progenitor cells thereof for transplantation, for experimental evaluation, as a source of lineage- and cell-specific products, and the like, for example for use in treating human disorders of the CNS. Also provided are methods, compositions and kits for screening candidate agents for activity in converting cells into neuronal cells, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and progenitor cells thereof.

This invention provides platelet-derived growth factor-responsive neural precursor (PRP) cells and methods of producing such cells in vivo or in vitro. These cells can further be used to generate neurons, oligodendrocytes and / or astrocytes.

Methods for producing a population of human-derived glial restricted progenitor cells (GRPs) with decreased potentially unintended or undesired cellular phenotypes and / or decreased standard deviation in the cells of the population are provided. Also provided are antibody panels and gene expression profiles to characterize GRPs and a method for its use in characterizing GRP cells. In addition methods for use of these GRP cells to generate astrocytes and / or oligodendrocytes, to re-myelinate neurons and to treat glial cell related and other neurodegenerative diseases or disorders or injuries or damage to the nervous system are provided. A method to manufacture neural cells depleted of A2B5 positive cells is also provided.

The present invention relates to an angiogenesis inhibitor comprising meteorin as an active ingredient that is highly expressed in astrocytes of the brain and retina in the late embryonic stage and after the birth of a mouse. It is in particular highly detected in astrocyte endfeet surrounding blood vessels and promotes the expression of thrombospondin-1 / -2 (TSP-1 / -2) via autocrine pathway and thus inhibits angiogenesis. The meteorin of the present invention can be effectively used for pharmaceutical compositions and health foods that prevent vascular diseases by inhibiting angiogenesis.

To supply substantially isolated neural cells in a large amount, and to provide an application means for a neurodegenerative medicine or the like for a neurodegenerative disease, a nervous damage or the like. A method for producing a substantially isolated neural cell, comprising the step of carrying out the suspension culture of embryonic stem cells in the presence of an astrocyte conditioned medium or ingredients substantially equivalent to the conditioned medium; and a neural cell obtained thereby; a cell pharmaceutical composition comprising, as an active ingredient, the isolated neural stem cell; and a method for treating a neurodegenerative disease or nervous damage, comprising the step of introducing the neural cell into a neurodegenerative site or a nervous damage site.

The invention discloses a preparation method and culture medium of human-derived astrocyte precursor cells. The method can be utilized to obtain abundant astrocyte precursor cells in vitro. Compared with the traditional method of directly differentiating astrocyte cells from nerve stem cells, the precursor cells obtained by the method have high multiplication capacity and capacity for directional differentiation into astrocyte cells, and the method can quickly obtain abundant high-purity astrocyte cells in a short time. The culture medium for culturing astrocyte precursor cells has the characteristics of definite components and accessible commercial products. The method for generating abundant astrocyte cells for scientific research or clinic use has the characteristics of low cost, high safety, high production efficiency and high operability.

The invention provides an application of a miR containing a 5'- terminal specific seed base sequence, an improved Schwann cell and applications thereof, and relates to the technical field of central nervous system damage repairing. The miR is used to promote the compatibility and integration between Schwann cells and astrocyte; and the 5'- terminal specific seed base sequence is UAAGGCAC or AAGGCAC. The results of experiments show that after the expression level of matured miR containing a 5'- terminal specific seed base sequence is artificially improved, the expression of astrocyte related gene in improved Schwann cells is obviously reduced, the expression of neurotrophic factor genes (NT-3 and BDNF) is obviously increased, and improved Schwann cells are compatible with and fused with astrocyte. The improved Schwann cells can inhibit astrocyte, the integration of Schwann cells and astrocyte is promoted, and the formation of glial scars caused by astrocyte is inhibited.

Low-generation dendrimers containing a high density of surface hydroxyl groups, and methods of synthesis thereof are provided. In particular, oligo ethylene glycol (OEG)-like dendrimers with a high surface functional groups at relatively low generations (e.g. ˜120 hydroxyls in the third generation, with a size of just 1-2 nm) is described. Dendrimer formulations including one or more prophylactic, therapeutic, and / or diagnostic agents, and methods of use thereof are also described. The formulations are suitable for topical, enteral, and / or parenteral delivery for treating one or more diseases, conditions, and injuries in the eye, the brain and nervous system (CNS), particularly those associated with pathological activation of microglia and astrocytes.

The invention relates to a Chinese wampee fruit extract and application thereof in preparation of a medicine for preventing and treating an alzheimer disease. The prepared Chinese wampee fruit extract disclosed by the invention can be applied to the medicine for preventing and treating the alzheimer disease as a new method for preventing and treating the alzheimer disease. The medicine disclosed by the invention has the effects of resisting oxidation, inhibiting generation of Abeta, reducing activation of astrocyte cells, and protecting nerve cells, so that the cognitive disorder caused by the disease can be effectively relieved; and the Chinese wampee fruit extract has a relatively good effect on prevention and treatment of the alzheimer disease.

The invention belongs to the field of medicine preparation, and particularly relates to application of Adjudin in preparing medicine for inhibiting glial scar formation. The glial scar is formed by activation and proliferation of astrocyte after central lesion. The medicine is at least in a form of tablets, capsules, granules, dripping pills, suspensions, syrup, enteric-coated preparation, emulsion suspension and injections. Experiments show that Adjudin can effectively reduce size of the glial scar of mice after brain tissue injury; in an in-vitro primary cell scratch model, Adjudin remarkably inhibits proliferation and migration of astrocyte cells, improves ethology of the mice after brain injury and promotes recovery, so that Adjudin has important application value in preparing the medicine for inhibiting glial scar formation.

The invention relates to application of panaxoside Rd in preparing medicament for preventing and curing Alzheimer's disease. Experiments show that the injury of nerve cells in the Alzheimer's disease can be simulated by three-dimensionally and directionally injecting beta amyloid to bilateral sea horse CA1 areas, the toxicity effect of A beta on the nerve cells can be remarkably relieved by providing the panaxoside Rd in advance, the number and form of propagated and activated astrocytes are recovered to be normal, the ultra microstructures of the abnormal cells in the CA1 areas are improved, the expression of caspase-3 can be obviously reduced, and the panaxoside Rd has obvious protection effect on the injury of the nerve cells in the Alzheimer's disease.

The invention discloses application of cobra neurotoxin monomer molecules in treatment of senile dementia. The senile dementia, also known as Alzheimer disease, is a senile disease with progressive memory disorder, obstacle of judgment and reasoning ability as well as dyskinesia as main clinical features. Evidence shows that strong focal inflammatory responses exist in the brains of the patients with the senile dementia, and activated microglia and astrocytes exist near senile plaques; and the activated microglia and astrocytes can express a plurality of inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-1[beta] (IL-1[beta]), tumor necrosisfactor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and the like. Therefore, experts suggest that neurodegeneration may be caused by inappropriate activation of immune and inflammatoryreactions in the brain; and super-strong immune reactions can attack nerve tissue "in the wrong direction", thereby causing neuron damage and death. In order to solve the problems, the invention discloses a group of cobra neurotoxin monomer molecules which can inhibit increase of contents of related inflammatory factors, namely the IL-1[beta]) and the TNF-alpha, in the hippocampus of rats with the senile dementia, as well as significantly shorten escape latency of the rats with the senile dementia after treatment in Morris water maze experiment.

The invention relates to application of astragaloside in preparation of drug for promoting neural stem cell regeneration. Research shows that astragaloside is capable of effectively promoting self-renewing and multiplication of neural stem cells, and promoting neural stem cell in mouse brain subjected to ischemia reperfusion injury to produce new neuron cells, astrocyte cells or synaptic glial cells, and the like. Therefore, the regeneration capacity of the neural stem cell can be effectively recovered.

The invention discloses a construction method of an adeno-associated virus cross-blood brain barrier model. The construction method comprises the following steps: inoculating prepared astrocytes to the upper layer of a chip; inervsely inoculating prepared human brain microvascular endothelial cells to the lower layer of the chip; placing the chip in a matched precise shaking table so as to simulate the fluid shear force in the blood vessel of a human body; and performing continuous culture on the double-layer co-culture chip so that brain microvascular endothelial cells and astrocytes grow to form a blood brain barrier structure. According to the technical scheme provided by the invention, the in-vitro blood-brain barrier model is successfully constructed, the characteristics of the in-vivo blood-brain barrier are reflected more accurately and more closely, and the method can be used for related research of AAV crossing the blood-brain barrier. According to the invention, fluid shear force is added, so that a real in-vivo environment is better met, high throughput can be realized, and consumption of cells and reagents is reduced.

The invention relates to the induction of the neuronal fate in neural stem cells or neural progenitor cells. The inventors have found that a neuronal fate in a neural stem cell or neural progenitor cell can be induced by expressing Nurr1 above basal levels within the cell. Nurr1 is a transcription factor of the thyroid hormone / retinoic acid nuclear receptor superfamily. It is shown herein that the expression of Nurr1 above basal levels in neural stem cells or neural progenitor cells increases the proportion of the cells which differentiate toward a neural fate. It has been found that in particular, dopaminergic neural stem cells or progenitor cells by a process including expression of Nurr1 above basal levels in the cells and contact of the cells with one or more factors supplied by or derived from Type I astrocytes of the ventral mesencephalon.

The invention relates to culturing brain endothelial cells, and optionally astrocytes and neurons in a fluidic device under conditions whereby the cells mimic the structure and function of the blood brain barrier. Culture of such cells in a microfluidic device, whether alone or in combination with other cells, drives maturation and / or differentiation further than existing systems.

The invention relates to application of E3 ubiquitin ligase CHIP in a gliomatosis cerebri disease. In glioma tissues, CHIP is mainly expressed in endochylema of a tumor cell and is localized with labeled protein GFAP (Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein) of an astroglia, and the expression increases along with the increment of levels; after a CHIP expression amount rises, mRNA (Messenger RNA) and protein expression of a Survivin increase; and after the CHIP expression amount reduces, the mRNA (Messenger RNA) and the protein expression of the Survivin decrease and the protein expression of beta-catenin increases. Through immunohistochemistry, the invention compares the expression conditions of the CHIP in gliomas at different levels and normal gliomatosis cells, clarifies effects and pathological mechanisms of the CHIP in the processes of glioma occurrence, development, proliferation and invasiveness and provides powerful means for the biological target treatment of the glioma in future.

The presently disclosed subject matter provides in vitro methods of inducing differentiation of stem cells into glial competent cells (e.g., astrocyte precursors) and astrocytes, and glial competent cells (e.g., astrocyte precursors) and astrocytes generated by such methods. The presently disclosed subject matter also provides uses of such glial competent cells (e.g., astrocyte precursors) and astrocytes for treating neurodegenerative disorders.

The invention discloses a bionic three-dimensional nerve blood vessel unit direct contact co-culture system which at least comprises neurons, semipermeable membranes, three-dimensional cultured astrocytes, semipermeable membranes and vascular endothelial cells, the three-dimensional cultured astrocytes are attached to the non-vascular endothelial cell side of a semipermeable membrane-vascular endothelial cell complex, and the semipermeable membrane-vascular endothelial cell complex is attached to the non-vascular endothelial cell side of the semipermeable membrane-vascular endothelial cell complex. And the semi-permeable membrane is attached to the non-neuron cell side of the semi-permeable membrane-neuron complex to form a direct contact co-culture system of vascular endothelial cells, three-dimensional culture astrocytes and neurons. The invention further discloses a construction method of the bionic three-dimensional nerve blood vessel unit direct contact co-culture system. According to the bionic three-dimensional nerve and blood vessel unit direct contact co-culture system and the construction and culture method thereof provided by the invention, physiological functions of blood brain barrier, nutrition coupling, electrophysiological coupling and the like of the nerve and blood vessel unit in vivo can be comprehensively and effectively simulated.

The invention discloses an application of a polypyrimidine sequence binding protein silencing agent combined with retinoic acid and purinine amine in preparation of a medicine for repairing spinal cord injury, and belongs to the technical field of biological medicine. The polypyrimidine sequence binding protein (PTB) is silenced in vitro through a virus, and meanwhile, micromolecule retinoic acid (RA) and purinol amine (PMA) which are related to motor neuron differentiation are jointly added, so that mouse spinal cord reactive astrocytes are successfully reprogrammed into motor neuron; and help is provided for further in-vivo research on the effect of a PTB combined micromolecule reprogramming strategy in spinal cord injury post-repair, so that better spinal cord injury repair and function reconstruction effects are realized.

The invention belongs to the technical field of biology, and relates to a composition and method for reprogramming human astrocytes into neurons or brain-like organs. The composition for efficiently reprogramming human astrocytes into neurons comprises a substance capable of realizing OCT4 overexpression, a substance knocking down a cell cycle regulation factor p53, and a small molecule drug capable of inducing human astrocytes to be reprogrammed into neurons, wherein the small molecule drug capable of inducing the human astrocytes to be reprogrammed into the neurons is selected from one or more of the following four small molecule drugs: CHIR99021, SB431542, RepSox or Y27632. Compared with the prior art, the composition and method have the following advantages: regulation and control of two genes are combined; a brand-new small molecular medicine composition capable of efficiently reprogramming human astrocytes into neurons and brain-like organs is obtained through a large amount of screening; and reliability of the system obtained through screening is verified on astrocytes differentiated from human embryonic stem cells H9 and astrocytes of para-tumor tissues of glioma patients.

The present disclosure generally relates to a process to prepare a cell culture system that mimics the structure of blood brain barrier (BBB) and are useful to study the functions thereof. In particular, the present invention relates to a direct-contact coculture and triculture systems prepared by plating BMECs on a pre-formed lawn of coculture of astrocytes and pericytes on the apical surface of a culture-chamber to achieve a truly direct contact triculture model for BBB. The cell culture systems disclosed herein are also useful for studying the functions of the blood brain barrier and predicting the efficacy and potential toxicity of a drug candidate.

The invention relates to an application of a Ptbp1 inhibitor in preventing and / or treating nervous system diseases related to functional neuronal death. Specifically, the invention provides an application of a Ptbp1 gene or RNA or an encoded protein inhibitor thereof in preparing a composition or a preparation, and the composition or the preparation is used for preventing and / or treating nervous system diseases related to functional neuronal death. By inhibiting the expression or activity of the Ptbp1 gene or RNA or encoded protein of the Ptbp1 gene or RNA thereof in astrocytes in the brain, the transdifferentiation the astrocytes into dopamine neurons can be effectively induced. In addition, by inhibiting the expression or activity of the Ptbp1 gene or RNA or encoded protein thereof in muller glial cells in the retinal, the transdifferentiation of the muller glial cells into retinal ganglion cells can be effectively induced, thereby preventing and / or treating a nervous system diseaserelated to functional neuronal death.

The invention provides a culture method for transforming human oral mucosal stem cells into astrocytes. The method includes the steps of culture of the human oral mucosal stem cells, induction and differentiation. The autologous oral mucosa stem cells are induced and differentiated into the astrocytes, and the autologous oral mucosa stem cell induced astrocytes have no ethical problems when used clinically and reduce immune rejection response; and the astrocytes induced by the oral mucosal stem cells have high purity, the purity can reach 95% or more, and the induction differentiation time is8-10 days.

The present invention relates to methods for treating brain metastasis by inhibiting gap junction functionality. It is based, at least in part, on the discovery that cancer cells expressing Protocadherin 7 and Connexin 43 form gap junctions with astrocytes that promote the growth of brain metastases, and that inhibition of Protocadherin 7 and / or Connexin 43 expression in cancer cells reduce progression of brain metastases. It is further based on the discovery that treatment with gap junction inhibitors tonabersat and meclofenamate inhibited progression of brain metastatic lesions and enhanced the anti-cancer activity of the conventional chemotherapeutic agent, carboplatin.

Disclosed herein are kits comprising transcription factors for inducing a fibroblast cell into an induced embryonic neural progenitor cell. The induced embryonic neural progenitor cell is then capable of differentiating into an astrocyte, an oligodendrocyte or a neuron. Also disclosed are the uses of the kit as a platform for selecting a drug candidate to treat neurological diseases.

The invention features a non-transgenic rat model for early AD, using a metal mixture of As, Cd and Pb, characterized by enhanced synergistic amyloidogenicity in rat cortex and hippocampus. This model can serve as a tool for (a) AD-directed drug screening, and (b) determining mechanism of AD pathogenicity. It features induction of the A?-mediated apoptosis and induction of inflammation in rodent brain. The invention features novel astrocyte and neuronal cellular models for AD, using a metal mixture of As, Cd and Pb, characterized by enhanced synergistic amyloidogenicity. This model can serve as a tool for (a) AD-directed drug screening in astrocytes and neurons, and (b) determining mechanism of AD pathogenicity in cells. It features induction of the A?-mediated apoptosis and induction of inflammation in astrocytes and neurons.

The invention relates to a fusion protein of a midbrain astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor for preventing and treating obesity, and belongs to the technical field of biological medicines. The invention provides a fusion protein of a midbrain astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor. The fusion protein at least contains the following two fragments: an amino acid sequence of the midbrain astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor and an amino acid sequence of an immune globulin Fc fragment. The fusion protein is good in stability and long in half-life period, can be used for treating obesity, diabetes mellitus and other metabolic diseases, and has a good application prospect.

The present invention relates to a method of a) treating any of depression induced by chronic stress; depression in a subject afflicted with PTSD; anxiety induced by chronic stress; anxiety in a subject afflicted with PTSD; cognitive impairment induced by chronic stress; altered morphology and / or reduced number of GFAP+ cells in hippocampus and / or frontal cortex induced by chronic stress; working memory impairment in a subject afflicted with PTSD; b) inhibiting or reversing loss of GFAP+ cells in hippocampus and / or frontal cortex induced by chronic stress; c) decreasing consolidation of contextual fear memory in a subject afflicted with PTSD; d) enhancing extinction of fear memory in a subject afflicted with PTSD; or e) increasing calcineurin A expression in a subject afflicted with PTSD using a combination of cotinine and an antioxidant.

The invention relates to an application of a Ptbp1 inhibitor in preventing and / or treating nervous system diseases related to functional neuron death. Specifically, the invention provides an application of a Ptbp1 gene or RNA or an encoded protein inhibitor of the Ptbp1 gene or RNA in preparation of a composition or a preparation, wherein the composition or the preparation is used for preventing and / or treating nervous system diseases related to functional neuron death. By inhibiting the expression or activity of the Ptbp1 gene or RNA or encoded protein of the Ptbp1 gene or RNA of astrocytes in the brain, transdifferentiation and differentiation of the astrocytes to dopamine neurons can be effectively induced; and meanwhile, by inhibiting the expression or activity of the Ptbp1 gene or RNAor encoded protein of the Ptbp1 gene or RNA in Muller glial cells in the retina, transdifferentiation of Muller glial cells into optic ganglion cells can be effectively induced, so that nervous system diseases related to functional neuron death are prevented and / or treated.