Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neurons Are Functionally Mature In Vitro and Integrate into the Mouse Striatum Following Transplantation.

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) are a powerful tool for modelling human development. In recent years, hPSCs have become central in cell-based therapies for neurodegenerative diseases given their potential to replace affected neurons. However, directing hPSCs into specific neuronal types is complex and requires an accurate protocol that mimics endogenous neuronal development.

Human t-DARPP is induced during striatal development.

Human Dopamine- and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein of molecular weight 32kDa (DARPP-32, also known as PPP1R1B) gene codes for different transcripts that are mainly translated into two DARPP-32 protein isoforms, full length (fl)-DARPP-32 and truncated (t)-DARPP. The t-DARPP lacks the first 36 residues at the N-terminal, which alters its function. In the central nervous system, fl-DARPP-32 is highly expressed in GABAergic striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs), where it integrates dopaminergic and glutamatergic input signaling.

Quantitative high-throughput gene expression profiling of human striatal development to screen stem cell-derived medium spiny neurons.

A systematic characterization of the spatio-temporal gene expression during human neurodevelopment is essential to understand brain function in both physiological and pathological conditions. In recent years, stem cell technology has provided an in vitro tool to recapitulate human development, permitting also the generation of human models for many diseases. The correct differentiation of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) into specific cell types should be evaluated by comparison with specific cells/tissue profiles from the equivalent adult in vivo organ.

Intronic RNAs mediate EZH2 regulation of epigenetic targets.

Epigenetic deregulation at a number of genomic loci is one of the hallmarks of cancer. A role for some RNA molecules in guiding repressive polycomb complex PRC2 to specific chromatin regions has been proposed. Here we use an in vivo cross-linking method to detect and identify direct PRC2-RNA interactions in human cancer cells, revealing a number of intronic RNA sequences capable of binding to the core component EZH2 and regulating the transcriptional output of its genomic counterpart.

Small molecule enoxacin is a cancer-specific growth inhibitor that acts by enhancing TAR RNA-binding protein 2-mediated microRNA processing.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA molecules that regulate gene expression at the posttranscriptional level and are critical for many cellular pathways. The disruption of miRNAs and their processing machineries also contributes to the development of human tumors. A common scenario for miRNA expression in carcinogenesis is emerging that shows that impaired miRNA production and/or down-regulation of these transcripts occurs in many neoplasms.