Development of selective cytotoxic viral vectors for concentration of undifferentiated cells in cardiomyocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells

Sci Rep. 2019 Mar 6;9(1):3630. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-36848-5.

Abstract

Cell-processed therapeutic products (CTPs) derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have innovative applications in regenerative medicine. However, undifferentiated hPSCs possess tumorigenic potential; thus, sensitive methods for the detection of residual undifferentiated hPSCs are essential for the clinical use of hPSC-derived CTPs. The detection limit of the methods currently available is 1/105 (0.001%, undifferentiated hPSCs/differentiated cells) or more, which could be insufficient for the detection of residual hPSCs when CTPs contain more than 1 × 105 cells. In this study, we developed a novel approach to overcome this challenge, using adenovirus and adeno-associated virus (AdV and AAV)-based selective cytotoxic vectors. We constructed AdV and AAV vectors that possess a suicide gene, iCaspase 9 (iCasp9), regulated by the CMV promoter, which is dormant in hPSCs, for the selective expression of iCasp9 in differentiated cells. As expected, AdV/CMV-iCasp9 and AAV/CMV-iCasp9 exhibited cytotoxicity in cardiomyocytes but not in human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). The vectors also induced apoptosis in hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, and the surviving cells exhibited higher levels of hPSC marker expression. These results indicate that the AdV- and AAV-based cytotoxic vectors concentrate cells expressing the undifferentiated cell markers in hiPSC-derived products and are promising biological tools for verifying the quality of CTPs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adenoviridae / genetics*
  • Adenoviridae Infections / virology
  • Cell Differentiation*
  • Dependovirus / genetics*
  • Genetic Vectors / administration & dosage*
  • Genetic Vectors / genetics
  • Humans
  • Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / cytology*
  • Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / metabolism
  • Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / virology
  • Myocytes, Cardiac / metabolism
  • Myocytes, Cardiac / pathology*
  • Myocytes, Cardiac / virology
  • Parvoviridae Infections / virology
  • Regenerative Medicine*