Induced pluripotent stem cell technology for drug development of Alzheimer’s disease

Induced pluripotent stem cell technology for drug development of Alzheimer's disease

Takayuki Kondo^1,2), Haruhisa Inoue^1,2)

¹⁾Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University
²⁾Drug-discovery Cellular Basis Development Team, RIKEN BioResource Center

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in elderly people, and the increasing worldwide prevalence of AD is a major public health concern. All approved drugs for AD are only symptomatic treatments, and disease-modifying therapy is urgently needed. In the last decade, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have revolutionized the utility of human in vitro disease models. Recent developments in human iPSC technology have afforded the opportunity to use human neurons and glia for investigating the cellular changes involved in AD and developing anti-AD drugs. In this review, we describe recent progress of iPSC research and discuss the translational challenges of AD patient iPSCs in disease modeling.

Address correspondence to Dr. Haruhisa Inoue, Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University (53 Kawahara-cho, Shogoin, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan)