Stem cell models of Alzheimer's disease: progress and challenges

• Published in: Alzheimer's research & therapy Vol. 9; no. 1; p. 42
• Main Authors: Arber, Charles, Lovejoy, Christopher, Wray, Selina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 13.06.2017; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: 3D cerebral organoids; Alzheimer Disease - pathology; Alzheimer's disease; Animals; Batch Cell Culture Techniques - methods; Brain research; Care and treatment; Cells, Cultured; Dementia; Development and progression; Developmental biology; Disease Models, Animal; Embryos; Gene expression; Genetic engineering; Genomes; Genomics; Humans; Induced pluripotent stem cells; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells - pathology; Neural Stem Cells - pathology; Neuronal differentiation; Neurons; Organoids - pathology; Review; Stem cells; Tissue Engineering - methods; Transplantation; Neuronal differentiation; Alzheimer’s disease; 3D cerebral organoids; Induced pluripotent stem cells
• ISSN: 1758-9193; 1758-9193
• DOI: 10.1186/s13195-017-0268-4

A major challenge to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been the lack of physiologically relevant in vitro models which capture the precise patient genome, in the cell type of interest, with physiological expression levels of the gene(s) of interest. Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, together with advances in 2D and 3D neuronal differentiation, offers a unique opportunity to overcome this challenge and generate a limitless supply of human neurons for in vitro studies. iPSC-neuron models have been widely employed to model AD and we discuss in this review the progress that has been made to date using patient-derived neurons to recapitulate key aspects of AD pathology and how these models have contributed to a deeper understanding of AD molecular mechanisms, as well as addressing the key challenges posed by using this technology and what progress is being made to overcome these. Finally, we highlight future directions for the use of iPSC-neurons in AD research and highlight the potential value of this technology to neurodegenerative research in the coming years.