Immortalized Human DRG Neuronal Cell Line

Unmet Need
Peripheral neuropathy is estimated to affect 20 million people in the U.S. alone. Patients suffer from a number of symptoms including: numbness, tingling, pricking sensations, muscle weakness, abnormal sensitivity to touch, and feelings of burning pain. Two of the most common causes of peripheral neuropathy are the result of diabetes and toxicity from chemotherapeutic drugs. Approximately 60-70% of people with diabetes and 30-40% of people undergoing chemotherapy will develop some form of neuropathy. Cancer patients have actually stopped treatment due to development of neuropathic pain.
 
The dorsal root ganglion (DRG) of the spine is a processing gateway for peripheral sensory signals and is thought to play an important role in the development of peripheral neuropathy. However, the cellular and molecular changes that occur in the DRG associated with neuropathy remain unclear. New tools that could help reveal how the DRG responds to diabetic conditions or toxic chemotherapy drugs may guide better treatment options for neuropathic pain.
 
Technology Overview
Hopkins researchers have created an immortalized human neuronal cell line, HC-1, from human dorsal root ganglia neurons that were differentiated from human embryonic stem cells. This cell line can extend neurites, express high levels of DRG neuronal markers and display human DRG characteristics. Electrophysiological tests also show the cell line exhibits functional properties of DRG pain sensory neurons.
 
Scientists were able to use HC-1 cells to screen for cancer drug toxicity and results indicated that the HC-1 cells might be used in high throughput systems for drug screening to identify compounds for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathies.
 
In additional studies, HC-1 cells were habituated in vitro to metabolize glutamine, other than glucose, as the major source of energy and were adapted to grow in physiological levels of glucose. These conditioned HC-1 cells demonstrated susceptibility to high glucose stress. As such, normoglycemic adapted HC-1 cells may also be useful in exploring mechanisms of toxicity of high glucose in modeling diabetic neuropathy.
 
Stage of Development
The human DRG neuronal cell line, HC-1, is available.
 
Publications
N/A
 

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