Modeling Alzheimer's disease with patient astrocyte

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K16599
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 52020:Neurology-related
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Kondo Takayuki 京都大学, iPS細胞研究所, 特定拠点講師 (80536566)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: アストロサイト / iPS細胞 / アルツハイマー病 / 孤発性 / GWAS

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Alzheimer's disease is expected to increase dramatically with the advent of an aging society, but treatment methods are limited. To understand the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, we focused on astrocytes, the most abundant cell type in the brain. In order to prepare astrocytes from patient iPS cells, we worked on improving the differentiation induction method. In addition, we established a method to model sporadic Alzheimer's disease, which accounts for more than 90% of Alzheimer's disease. As a platform for modeling sporadic Alzheimer's disease in astrocytes, we constructed a cohort-scale disease-specific iPS cell and cellGWAS method that can explore the genetic background by each cell-type and phenotype.

Free Research Field

神経科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

iPS細胞技術に基盤を置くiPS細胞コホートおよびcellGWASを用いたCDiP技術は、細胞種および病態ごとに遺伝背景を紐解くことで、今までモデル化が困難であった孤発性ADの病態リスク評価と創薬標的を明らかにし、得られた遺伝子データに基づく実社会での発症予測を提供した。将来的に、遺伝情報から、孤発性ADを発症する老年期から何十年も前の時点で、発症リスク展望を提示し、予防的あるいは治療的介入の必要可否を明示してくれる未来につながる可能性がある。