Ace Therapeutics provides cellular models for the study of the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders, as well as analytical services based on these models. We aim to provide suitable in vitro models to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms of psychiatric disorders and to develop new drugs to treat them.

Introduction of Neurosphere Development for Psychiatric Disorders

NSCs can form floating spherical cultures called "neurospheres". Neurospheres can also be obtained from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) or neural progenitor cells (NPC). The process by which neurospheres differentiate into new neurons is called neurogenesis. The process of neurogenesis is behaviorally and biochemically associated with psychiatric disorders such as major depression, schizophrenia, and cognitive dysfunction. Neurogenic cells in the hippocampus are commonly associated with psychiatric disorders and neurogenesis is thought to be necessary to produce a therapeutic response to antidepressant treatment.

In conclusion, the neurosphere is a good model for studying the molecular mechanisms of neurodevelopmental abnormalities, and neurospheres from schizophrenic patients show reduced size, neural differentiation efficiency, neuronal growth, and cell migration distance.

Fig. 1 Schematic description of the human Neurosphere Assay test methods and the identification of their scientific bases. (Koch K, et al., 2022)

Neurosphere Development Services

Ace Therapeutics uses 3D neurospheres of iPSC-derived materials to create more biologically relevant cell systems for antipsychotic drug screening. We offer a straightforward, versatile, and reproducible method for incorporating 3D neurospheres into your disease and drug discovery studies. In addition, we offer any combination of hybrid neuronal cells (available in multiple subtypes) and astrocytes to generate the brain region-specific neurospheres you want for high-throughput assays, including calcium imaging. We aim to do this by developing advanced in vitro systems for simulating the human brain and studying the toxic effects of environmental chemicals.

Neurosphere Culture Protocol

• Harvest the adherent cells.
• Count and seed the cells.
• Allow cells to grow.
• Passage the neurospheres.
• Wash the spheroids.
• Enzymatically treat neurospheres.
• Break apart the neurospheres.
• Count and seed the cells.

Neurosphere Analysis Services

We can differentiate neurospheres into brain effector cells, including neurons, astrocytes, or oligodendrocytes, depending on your research needs. Our reports contain detailed procedures for generating neurospheres from iPSC-derived neural progenitor cells, and our cell models support their use in experiments such as dopaminergic differentiation and drug toxicity assays. We also offer the following neurosphere-based analysis services

• Flow cytometry analysis: analysis of expression of cell type-specific markers in proliferating hNPC and hiNPC neurospheres.
• hiNPC differentiation and migration assays
• Immunocytochemical staining analysis
• Assesses mitochondrial function and detects cytotoxicity following chemical exposure to distinguish compound-specific effects from non-specific effects derived from necrosis or reduced cell viability.

Why Choose Us?

• In-stock: use off-the-shelf iCell neurons and glial cells
• Consistent: generate reproducible spheroid size and cell type ratios
• Flexible: create spheroids for specific brain regions
• Disease-relevant: suitable for modeling psychiatric disorders and neuroinflammation
• High throughput: generates one sphere per well in a 384-well format
• Reliable: industry-leading cell quality

Ace Therapeutics is designed to help you discover molecular targets for drug discovery and potential new drugs in drug screening. If you are interested in this service, please make an inquiry to learn how we can support you in your project.

Reference

1. Koch K, et al. Scientific Validation of Human Neurosphere Assays for Developmental Neurotoxicity Evaluation. Front Toxicol. 2022, 4:816370.