Figure 4.

Treatment of PD using non-immunogenic stem cells. The illustration shows the workflow for generating neural progenitor cells for transplantation into the striatum of a PD patient. A healthy donor provides a biopsy, preferably skin, which is then reprogrammed into iPSC using a non-integrative method. iPSC are then gene edited using CRISPR-Cas9 to generate non-immunogenic stem cells by knocking out MHCI, MHCII, and upregulating CD47. Furthermore, a suicide switch is inserted for safety regulation. Once the non-immunogenic cells pass quality control (QC) they can be differentiated into the required cell type, for PD dopaminergic neural progenitor cells. Cells are then injected into the striatum where they can differentiate and integrate. Integrated cells are expected to not only replace dead cells but also to positively influence neighboring cells and decrease neuroinflammation.