Duo using DMC Foundation grant to test adult stem cell that could cross blood-brain barrier
Wayne State University School of Medicine researcher Paula Dore-Duffy, Ph.D., and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences researcher and associate chemistry professor Andrew Feig, Ph.D. will embark on a new approach for using adult stem cells to deliver reparative drugs into the brain, using a $97,359 grant from the DMC Foundation.
Dr. Dore-Duffy has identified an adult stem cell, the pericyte, which readily migrates into the brain, crossing the blood-brain barrier, a major hurdle in treating diseases of the brain. The new mechanism of drug delivery utilizes the pericyte as a cell transport system.
"The potential is unlimited and can be used for cancer as well as neurodegenerative diseases," she said. "There are many diseases of the brain that cannot be treated because of the blood-brain barrier. This use of an adult stem cell to carry therapeutic drugs is novel and important. We are the only lab that has human pericyte lines."
She is the principal investigator for the study, "A Novel Cellular-Based System to Maximize Delivery of Chemotherapeutics Across the Blood-Brain Barrier." Dr. Dore-Duffy, a professor of Neurology, and her co-investigator Dr. Feig, an associate professor of Chemistry and associate dean of WSU's Graduate School, will use the DMC Foundation funds to test genetic reprogramming of the pericyte and its trafficking to the central nervous system in an animal model with multiple sclerosis, a central nervous system disease.
"We know pericytes can migrate to injured tissue such as the brain and not be sequestered by the blood-brain barrier. We reasoned that they would therefore be an excellent cellular carrier for a variety of drugs that are kept from the brain. This grant allows us to begin these important studies and secure needed preliminary data," she said.
The DMC Foundation award, one of four recently given to WSU researchers, will complement her ongoing research examining the overall therapeutic potential of pericytes, including for cell replacement and tissue repair to the brain, and the work of Dr. Feig, who studies mechanisms by which cells can be altered to carry therapeutic molecules.
The DMC Foundation, a supporting organization of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, promotes the well-being of the metropolitan Detroit community through support of health and medical research, education and community benefit activities.
Via Wayne State University School of Medicine