A Study on the Protective Effect of sRAGE-MSCs in a Rodent Reperfusion Model of Myocardial Infarction

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the major leading causes of death in humans globally. Recently, increased levels of recruited macrophages and AGE-albumin were observed in the hearts of humans and animals with acute myocardial infarction. Thus, the purposes of this study were to investigate whether the elevated levels of AGE-albumin from activated macrophage cells are implicated in ischemia-induced cardiomyocyte death and to develop therapeutic strategies for AMI based on its underlying molecular mechanisms with respect to AGEs. The present study demonstrated that activated macrophages and AGE-albumin were observed in heart tissues obtained from humans and rats with AMI incidences. In the cellular model of AMI, it was found that increased expression of AGE-albumin was shown to be co-localized with macrophages, and the presence of AGE-albumin led to increased expression of RAGE through the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. After revealing cardiomyocyte apoptosis induced by toxicity of the AGE-RAGE system, sRAGE-secreting MSCs were generated using the CRISPR/Cas9 platform to investigate the therapeutic effects of sRAGE-MSCs in an AMI rat model. Gene-edited sRAGE-MSCs showed greater therapeutic effects against AMI pathogenesis in rat models compared to mock MSCs, and promising results of the functional improvement of stem cells could result in significant improvements in the clinical management of cardiovascular diseases.

CRISPR/Cas9 Edited sRAGE-MSCs Protect Neuronal Death in Parkinson’s Disease Model

Background and Objectives

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a fatal and progressive degenerative disease of the nervous system. Until recently, its promising treatment and underlying mechanisms for neuronal death are poorly understood. This study was investigated to identify the molecular mechanism of neuronal death in the substantia nigra and corpus striatum of PD.

Methods

The soluble RAGE (sRAGE) secreting Umbilical Cord Blood-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cell (UCB-MSC) was generated by gene editing method using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9). These cells were transplanted into Corpus Striatum of rotenone-induced PD animal models then behavioral test, morphological analysis, and immunohistochemical experiments were performed to determine the neuronal cell death and recovery of movement.

Results

The neuronal cell death in Corpus Striatum and Substantia Nigra was dramatically reduced and the movement was improved after sRAGE secreting UCB-MSC treatment in PD mice by inhibition of RAGE in neuronal cells.

Conclusions

We suggest that sRAGE secreting UCB-MSC based therapeutic approach could be a potential treatment strategy for neurodegenerative disease including PD.

Microglial AGE-albumin is critical for neuronal death in Parkinson's disease: a possible implication for theranostics

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are known to play an important role in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease (PD), by inducing protein aggregation and cross-link, formation of Lewy body, and neuronal death. In this study, we observed that AGE-albumin, the most abundant AGE product in the human PD brain, is synthesized in activated microglial cells and accumulates in the extracellular space. AGE-albumin synthesis in human-activated microglial cells is distinctly inhibited by ascorbic acid and cytochalasin treatment. Accumulated AGE-albumin upregulates the receptor to AGE, leading to apoptosis of human primary dopamine (DA) neurons. In animal experiments, we observed reduced DA neuronal cell death by treatment with soluble receptor to AGE. Our study provides evidence that activated microglial cells are one of the main contributors in AGE-albumin accumulation, deleterious to DA neurons in human and animal PD brains. Finally, activated microglial AGE-albumin could be used as a diagnostic and therapeutic biomarker with high sensitivity for neurodegenerative disorders, including PD.