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Enhanced maturation of fast-spiking interneurons driven by mTOR activation

Chu, J.; Fitzgerald, M. L.; Sehgal, N.; Manley, W.; Fitzgerald, S.; Naung, H.; Goldberg, E. M.; Anderson, S. A.

2019-09-20 neuroscience
10.1101/777714 bioRxiv
Show abstract

The use of stem cell derived neurons for cell-based therapies is limited by a protracted maturation. We present a novel approach for accelerating the post-mitotic maturation of human stem cell derived interneurons via the activation of mTOR signaling. Lox sites were placed within PTEN, a key mTOR inhibitor, in a cortical interneuron (CIn) reporter line. Following directed differentiation and purification by FACS, the CIns were exposed to Cre-expressing lentivirus, then transplanted into mouse neocortex or plated onto cultured rat neocortex. Input synaptogenesis and dendritogenesis was greatly enhanced in the PTEN-deleted CIns. Whole-cell recording of the PTEN-deleted CIns in slices of transplanted neocortex revealed multiple indices of enhanced maturation. Finally, we observed similar effects using transient, doxycycline-inducible activation of AKT. We thus present an inducible, reversible approach for accelerating the maturation of human stem cell derived CIns, and to study the influences of this disease-related signaling system in human neurons.

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