Chemical Genetic Neural Stem Cell Lines

Chemical genetics is a method of modifying biological macromolecules by enabling them to interact with previously unrecognized small-molecule chemical agonists. Macromolecules that have been successfully modified include protein kinases, metabolic enzymes, ligand-gated ion channels, and G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The technology of designer receptors exclusively activated by design drugs (DREADDs), based on the modification of GPCRs, is currently the most widely used chemical genetics technology.

We provide chemical genetics-based neural stem cell development services and related products

DREADDs are unable to bind the original ligand and only receive signals from the exogenous ligand and activate the corresponding signaling pathway, which triggers different excitatory changes in the cell. Alfa Cytology has obtained DREADDs by modifying GPCRs on the membrane of nerve cells so that they are unable to bind the original neurotransmitter ligands. We express the modified biomolecule in the cell and control cellular activity by adding or removing specific drugs. This allows you to observe different excitability changes in nerve cells triggered by different drugs.

• With the help of tissue-specific promoters carrying DREADD genes through viral vectors, DREADDs are expressed on specific location-specific types of cells.
• With the aid of the specificity of the Cre-LoxP recombinase system, viral vectors carrying the DREADDs gene through the FLEX switch double-inverted openreading frame (DIO) were injected and transfected into the brains of Cre transgenic mice, so that the DREADDs were expressed only on Cre-expressing cells.
• The casting specificity of the modified herpes simplex virus was exploited to combine reverse tracer canine adenovirus (CAV) expressing Cre recombinase, i.e., CAV-Cre and AAV with FLEX-DREADDs (e.g., AAV-FLEX-hM3Dq).

Developable voltage probe-like neural stem cells

Advantages of the technology

• Chemical genetics technology does not require the implantation of optical fibres and therefore does not cause damage to brain tissue or phototoxicity.
• Since chemical genetics can deliver agonists systemically, it is possible to control multiple foci as well as large foci.
• In contrast to the device-dependent nature of optogenetics, the biophilic nature of the CNO used in chemical genetics and its multiple routes of administration (e.g., intravenous, oral, and intraperitoneal) make DREADDs a much simpler and more feasible technology.
• Compared to optogenetics, which controls neural activity at the millisecond level, chemical genetics can produce long-duration excitation or inhibition, which is more favorable to the treatment of brain diseases.

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