differentiation-enteric-nervous-system-lineages-from-human

Differentiation of Enteric Nervous System Lineages from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

The human enteric nervous system, ENS, is a large network of glial and neuronal cell types with remarkable neurotransmitter diversity. The ENS controls ...

University of California, San Francisco

SARS-CoV-2 infection has led to a global health crisis, and yet our understanding of the disease and potential treatment options remains limited. The infection occurs through binding of the virus with angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) on the cell membrane. Here, we established a screening strategy to identify drugs that reduce ACE2 levels in human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived cardiac cells and lung organoids. Target analysis of hit compounds revealed androgen signaling as a key modulator of ACE2 levels. Treatment with antiandrogenic drugs reduced ACE2 expression and protected hESC-derived lung organoids against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Finally, clinical data on COVID-19 patients demonstrated that prostate diseases, which are linked to elevated androgen, are significant risk factors and that genetic variants that increase androgen levels are associated with higher disease severity. These findings offer insights on the mechanism of disproportionate disease susceptibility in men and identify antiandrogenic drugs as candidate therapeutics for COVID-19.

Androgen Signaling Regulates SARS-CoV-2 Receptor Levels and Is Associated with Severe COVID-19 Symptoms in Men.

The neural crest (NC) is highly multipotent and generates diverse lineages in the developing embryo. However, spatiotemporally distinct NC populations display differences in fate potential, such as increased gliogenic and parasympathetic potential from later migrating, nerve-associated Schwann cell precursors (SCPs). Interestingly, while melanogenic potential is shared by both early migrating NC and SCPs, differences in melanocyte identity resulting from differentiation through these temporally distinct progenitors have not been determined. Here, we leverage a human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) model of NC temporal patterning to comprehensively characterize human NC heterogeneity, fate bias, and lineage development. We captured the transition of NC differentiation between temporally and transcriptionally distinct melanogenic progenitors and identified modules of candidate transcription factor and signaling activity associated with this transition. For the first time, we established a protocol for the directed differentiation of melanocytes from hPSCs through a SCP intermediate, termed trajectory 2 (T2) melanocytes. Leveraging an existing protocol for differentiating early NC-derived melanocytes, termed trajectory 1 (T1), we performed the first comprehensive comparison of transcriptional and functional differences between these distinct melanocyte populations, revealing differences in pigmentation and unique expression of transcription factors, ligands, receptors and surface markers. We found a significant link between the T2 melanocyte transcriptional signature and decreased survival in melanoma patients in the cancer genome atlas (TCGA). We performed an  CRISPRi screen of T1 and T2 melanocyte signature genes in a human melanoma cell line and discovered several T2-specific markers that promote lung metastasis in mice. We further demonstrated that one of these factors, SNRPB, regulates the splicing of transcripts involved in metastasis relevant functions such as migration, cell adhesion and proliferation. Overall, this study identifies distinct developmental trajectories as a source of diversity in melanocytes and implicates the unique molecular signature of SCP-derived melanocytes in metastatic melanoma.

Article	Year
Androgen Signaling Regulates SARS-CoV-2 Receptor Levels and Is Associated with Severe COVID-19 Symptoms in Men. Cell stem cell\| PubMed ID: 33232663	2020
Generation of Schwann cell derived melanocytes from hPSCs identifies pro-metastatic factors in melanoma. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology\| PubMed ID: 36945537	2023

Ryan M. Samuel

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