Improving the Safety of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Using Genome-edited Orthogonal Safeguards

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2020 Jun 3

PMID 32483127

Citations 44

Authors

Renata M Martin

Jonas L Fowler

M Kyle Cromer

Benjamin J Lesch

Ezequiel Ponce

Nobuko Uchida

Toshinobu Nishimura

Matthew H Porteus

Kyle M Loh

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Despite their rapidly-expanding therapeutic potential, human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived cell therapies continue to have serious safety risks. Transplantation of hPSC-derived cell populations into preclinical models has generated teratomas (tumors arising from undifferentiated hPSCs), unwanted tissues, and other types of adverse events. Mitigating these risks is important to increase the safety of such therapies. Here we use genome editing to engineer a general platform to improve the safety of future hPSC-derived cell transplantation therapies. Specifically, we develop hPSC lines bearing two drug-inducible safeguards, which have distinct functionalities and address separate safety concerns. In vitro administration of one small molecule depletes undifferentiated hPSCs >10-fold, thus preventing teratoma formation in vivo. Administration of a second small molecule kills all hPSC-derived cell-types, thus providing an option to eliminate the entire hPSC-derived cell product in vivo if adverse events arise. These orthogonal safety switches address major safety concerns with pluripotent cell-derived therapies.

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