Image: Dopaminergic neurons – TreeFrog Therapeutics

Abstract:
A breadth of preclinical studies now support the rationale of pluripotent stem cell-derived cell replacement therapies to alleviate motor symptoms in Parkinsonian patients. Replacement of the primary dysfunctional cell population in the disease, i.e. the A9 dopaminergic neurons, is the major focus of these therapies. To achieve this, most therapeutical approaches involve grafting single-cell suspensions of DA progenitors. However, most cells die during the transplantation process, as cells face anoïkis. One potential solution to address this challenge is to graft solid preparations, i.e. adopting a 3D format. Cryopreserving such a format remains a major hurdle and is not exempt from causing delays in the time to effect, as observed with cryopreserved single-cell DA progenitors. Here, we used a high-throughput cell-encapsulation technology coupled with bioreactors to provide a 3D culture environment enabling the directed differentiation of hiPSCs into neural microtissues. The proper patterning of these neural microtissues into a midbrain identity was confirmed using orthogonal methods, including qPCR, RNAseq, flow cytometry and immunofluorescent microscopy. The efficacy of the neural microtissues was demonstrated in a dose-dependent manner using a Parkinsonian rat model. The survival of the cells was confirmed by post-mortem histological analysis, characterised by the presence of human dopaminergic neurons projecting into the host striatum. The work reported here is the first bioproduction of a cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease in a scalable bioreactor, leading to a full behavioural recovery 16 weeks after transplantation using cryopreserved 3D format.

Nicolas Prudon, Lucía Cordero-Espinoza, Myriam Abarkan, Basile Gurchenkov, Chloé Morel, Marilyn Lepleux, Valérie De Luca, Maxime Lartigue, Hélène Cabanas, Nadège Pujol, Loanne Milvoy, Pauline Morand, Fabien Moncaubeig, Hélène Wurtz, Léa Poinçot, Maëlle De Marco, Agathe Jonckeau, Justine Pletenka, Elisa Luquet, Andrea Sovera, Jérôme Hardoüin, Inês Januario Neves, Anaïs Machado-Hitau, Kathleen Schmit, Lucie Piouceau, Solenn Guilbert, Lucie Manache-Alberici, Michaël Lanero Fidalgo, Guillaume Dabée, Thibault Dufourd, Jens Schroeder, Kévin Alessandri, Erwan Bezard, Emilie Faggiani, Maxime Feyeux, Bioreactor-produced iPSCs-derived dopaminergic neuron-containing neural microtissues innervate and normalize rotational bias in a dose-dependent manner in a Parkinson rat model, Neurotherapeutics, 2024, Volume 21, Issue 5, doi: 10.1016/j.neurot.2024.e00436.