Blood-derived integration-free iPS cell line UKBi011-A from a diagnosed male Alzheimer's disease patient with APOE ɛ4/ɛ4 genotype.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is most the frequent neurodegenerative disease, and the APOE ε4 allele is the most prominent risk factor for late-onset AD. Here, we present an iPSC line generated from peripheral blood cells of a male AD patient employing Sendai virus vectors encoding the transcription factors OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and c-MYC. The characterized iPSC line expresses typical human pluripotency markers and shows differentiation into all three germ layers, complete reprogramming vector clearance, a normal SNP genotype and maintenance of the APOE ε4/ε4 allele.

Reciprocal Regulation between Bifunctional miR-9/9(∗) and its Transcriptional Modulator Notch in Human Neural Stem Cell Self-Renewal and Differentiation.

Tight regulation of the balance between self-renewal and differentiation of neural stem cells is crucial to assure proper neural development. In this context, Notch signaling is a well-known promoter of stemness. In contrast, the bifunctional brain-enriched microRNA miR-9/9(∗) has been implicated in promoting neuronal differentiation. Therefore, we set out to explore the role of both regulators in human neural stem cells. We found that miR-9/9(∗) decreases Notch activity by targeting NOTCH2 and HES1, resulting in an enhanced differentiation. Vice versa, expression levels of miR-9/9(∗) depend on the activation status of Notch signaling. While Notch inhibits differentiation of neural stem cells, it also induces miR-9/9(∗) via recruitment of the Notch intracellular domain (NICD)/RBPj transcriptional complex to the miR-9/9(∗)_2 genomic locus. Thus, our data reveal a mutual interaction between bifunctional miR-9/9(∗) and the Notch signaling cascade, calibrating the delicate balance between self-renewal and differentiation of human neural stem cells.