Our long-term goal is to develop feasible strategies toward improving the efficacy of cardiac stem/progenitor cell (CPC) therapy, which is severely blocked by the cell source with limited contribution to produce new cardiomyocytes, cell aging, and poor donor cell survival. We previously demonstrated that preconditioning human CPCs with cobalt protoporphyrin (CoPP) exhibited significant beneficial effects for improving cell survival and cardiac function. However, singular strategy has shown insufficient benefit for improving the stem cell therapeutic efficiency. Therefore, the overall objective in this application is to test the compositional three small-molecule compounds to enhance the effectiveness of myocardial repair by a new subset of CPCs with low mitochondrial membrane potential, named as ??mlow-hCPCs. Guided by the strong preliminary data, our central hypothesis is that aging ??mlow-hCPCs have compromised cardiac regenerative potential, while rejuvenating aging ??mlow-hCPCs with combined three small-molecule compounds will restore their cardiac regenerative potential in vitro through targeting multiple senescence signal pathways, and enhance the effectiveness of stem cell therapy for ischemic heart disease in an immuno-deficient murine model following myocardial infarction. This hypothesis will be addressed by pursuing three specific aims: we will first test whether the rejuvenation with a composite of three small-molecule compounds (3SMCs) for aging ??mlow- hCPCs will increase their cardiac regenerative capability, on the basis of a) cell senescent phenotype, b) proliferation, c) cell survival, d) cytokine release, and e) endothelial and cardiomyogenic differentiation, through comparing with the vehicle-treated ??mlow-hCPCs, and with ??mlow-hCPCs from pediatric patients (Aim 1);
Our Aim 2 is to understand the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms of rejuvenating aging ??mlow-hCPCs with combined 3SMCs by targeting the senescence-associated signaling pathways. Finally, we will test whether the transplantation of 3SMCs-treated ??mlow-hCPCs will result in greater improvement of a) in vivo hCPC survival, proliferation, and differentiation; b) endogenous mouse cardiac regeneration; and c) cardiac structure and function in an immune-deficient mouse myocardial infarction (MI) model (Aim 3). The approach is innovative, in the applicant?s opinion, because it is expected to set a new research milestone on applying a composite of small-molecule compounds to enhance the therapeutic effectiveness of the novel subset of hCPCs with low mitochondrial membrane potential. The proposed research is significant, since knowledge gained from these studies will provide the essential implications on the strategies to promote the therapeutic effectiveness of ??mlow-hCPCs after transplantation and, therefore, their efficacy in clinical repairing infarcted myocardium for the cell therapy of patients with ischemic heart disease.

Public Health Relevance

(RELEVANCE) The major challenges in stem/progenitor cell therapy for heart disease include the cell source with limited contribution to produce new cardiomyocytes, cell aging, and poor survival of donor cells. In order to enhance the overall effectiveness of progenitor cell therapy, this project aims to test a strategy of rejuvenation with a composite of three small-molecule compounds for a novel subset of human cardiac progenitor cells (hCPCs with low mitochondrial membrane potential). The results and broad conclusions will be directly relevant to public health because the fulfillment of the proposed research will promote clinical repairing the infarcted myocardium for the cell therapy of patients with ischemic heart disease.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
7R01HL114951-07
Application #
9772670
Study Section
Myocardial Ischemia and Metabolism Study Section (MIM)
Program Officer
Buxton, Denis B
Project Start
2018-12-10
Project End
2019-05-31
Budget Start
2019-01-07
Budget End
2019-05-31
Support Year
7
Fiscal Year
2016
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Ohio State University
Department
Type
DUNS #
832127323
City
Columbus
State
OH
Country
United States
Zip Code
43210
Khatiwala, Roshni V; Zhang, Shuning; Li, Xiuchun et al. (2018) Inhibition of p16INK4A to Rejuvenate Aging Human Cardiac Progenitor Cells via the Upregulation of Anti-oxidant and NF?B Signal Pathways. Stem Cell Rev 14:612-625
Li, Xiuchun; He, Pan; Wang, Xiao-Liang et al. (2018) Sulfiredoxin-1 enhances cardiac progenitor cell survival against oxidative stress via the upregulation of the ERK/NRF2 signal pathway. Free Radic Biol Med 123:8-19
Zhang, Shuning; Li, Xiuchun; Jourd'heuil, Frances L et al. (2017) Cytoglobin Promotes Cardiac Progenitor Cell Survival against Oxidative Stress via the Upregulation of the NF?B/iNOS Signal Pathway and Nitric Oxide Production. Sci Rep 7:10754
Khatiwala, Roshni; Cai, Chuanxi (2016) Strategies to Enhance the Effectiveness of Adult Stem Cell Therapy for Ischemic Heart Diseases Affecting the Elderly Patients. Stem Cell Rev 12:214-23
Teng, Lei; Bennett, Edward; Cai, Chuanxi (2016) Preconditioning c-Kit-positive Human Cardiac Stem Cells with a Nitric Oxide Donor Enhances Cell Survival through Activation of Survival Signaling Pathways. J Biol Chem 291:9733-47
Ahn, Mi Kyoung; Lee, Keon Jin; Cai, Chuanxi et al. (2016) Mitsugumin 53 regulates extracellular Ca2+ entry and intracellular Ca2+ release via Orai1 and RyR1 in skeletal muscle. Sci Rep 6:36909
Cai, Chuanxi; Guo, Yiru; Teng, Lei et al. (2015) Preconditioning Human Cardiac Stem Cells with an HO-1 Inducer Exerts Beneficial Effects After Cell Transplantation in the Infarcted Murine Heart. Stem Cells 33:3596-607
Cai, Chuanxi; Teng, Lei; Vu, Duc et al. (2012) The heme oxygenase 1 inducer (CoPP) protects human cardiac stem cells against apoptosis through activation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)/NRF2 signaling pathway and cytokine release. J Biol Chem 287:33720-32