A Human Retinal Pigment Epithelium-Based Screening Platform Reveals Inducers of Photoreceptor Outer Segments Phagocytosis

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Phagocytosis is a key function in various cells throughout the body. A deficiency in photoreceptor outer segment (POS) phagocytosis by the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) causes vision loss in inherited retinal diseases and possibly age-related macular degeneration. To date, there are no effective therapies available aiming at recovering the lost phagocytosis function. Here, we developed a high-throughput screening assay based on RPE derived from human embryonic stem cells (hRPE) to reveal enhancers of POS phagocytosis. One of the hits, ramoplanin (RM), reproducibly enhanced POS phagocytosis and ensheathment in hRPE, and enhanced the expression of proteins known to regulate membrane dynamics and ensheathment in other cell systems. Additionally, RM rescued POS internalization defect in Mer receptor tyrosine kinase (MERTK) mutant hRPE, derived from retinitis pigmentosa patient induced pluripotent stem cells. Our platform, including a primary phenotypic screening phagocytosis assay together with orthogonal assays, establishes a basis for RPE-based therapy discovery aiming at a broad patient spectrum.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1347-1361
Number of pages15
JournalStem cell reports
Volume15
Issue number6
Publication statusPublished - 8 Dec 2020
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 33242397
ORCID /0000-0002-0926-6556/work/142250485
ORCID /0000-0001-9467-7677/work/161888190

Keywords