Olfactory mucosa stem cells delivery via nasal route: a simple way for the treatment of Parkinson disease

• Published in: Neurotoxicity research 2021-06, Vol.39 (3), p.598-608
• Main Authors: Simorgh, Sara, Alizadeh, Rafieh, Shabani, Ronk, Karimzadeh, Fariba, Seidkhani, Elham, Majidpoor, Jamal, Moradi, Fatemeh, Kasbiyan, Hamidreza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cell Biology; Neurobiology; Neurochemistry; Neurology; Neurosciences; Original Article; Pharmacology/Toxicology
• ISSN: 1029-8428; 1476-3524
• DOI: 10.1007/s12640-020-00290-1

Finding a simple and effective way for transferring cells to the brain lesion site with minimum side effects mounts a challenge in cell therapy. Cell delivery via nasal route using the bypassing the blood-brain barrier (BBB) property is a simple and non-invasive strategy without serious complications such as trauma. Therefore, it is a suitable technique to treat neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s disease (PD). Olfactory ectomesenchymal stem cells (OE-MSCs) located in the lamina propria of olfactory mucosa could be differentiated into dopaminergic neurons under in vitro and in vivo conditions. Thus, OE-MSCs represent a good source of Parkinson’s stem cell–based therapy. In this research, we studied thirty male rats ( n = 10 in each group) in three control (Ctl), lesion (LE), and intranasal administration (INA) groups to investigate the therapeutic effect of intranasal injection of OE-MSCs in the Parkinson’s animal models. To do so, we examined the homing variation of OE-MSCs in different brain regions such as olfactory bulb (OB), cortex, striatum (Str), hippocampus (HPC), and substantia nigra (SN). The results of real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis showed the expression of dopaminergic neuron markers such as PITX3, PAX2, PAX5 (as dopaminergic neurons markers), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), and dopamine transporter (DAT) 2 months after INA of 1 × 10 6 OE-MSCs. The results confirmed that IN OE-MSCs delivery into the central nervous system (CNS) was powerful enough to improve the behavioral functions in the animal models of PD. Graphical Abstract