Fig. 1.

Future applications of hiPSC technology in AD modeling and drug discovery. hiPSCs derived from somatic cells can differentiate into multiple neuronal and neuroglial cells. Differentiated cells obtained from hiPSCs generated from AD patient cells (AD-hiPSCs) can be grown in 3D co-cultures. This complex system can simulate the interactions between neural cells in vivo to identify disease mechanisms, such as synaptic dysfunction, due to the formation of neuritic β-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles of hyperphosphorylated Tau protein. Reprogramming strategies and models have promising potential to facilitate neurodegenerative disease research and drug discovery for further clinical applications. hiPSC: human induced pluripotent stem cells; Sox2, SRY-Box Transcription Factor 2; Oct, Octamer-binding transcription factor 4; Klf4, Kruppel Like Factor 4; c-Myc, MYC Proto-Oncogene.