The neurofilament-derived peptide NFL-TBS.40-63: A promising therapeutic agent to target and manipulate neural stem cells and glioblastoma cellsIBS-CHU, Angers, 14h

The November 9, 2017

Titre : The neurofilament-derived peptide NFL-TBS.40-63: A promising therapeutic agent to target and manipulate neural stem cells and glioblastoma cells

Directeur de thèse: Dr Joël Eyer

The laboratory discoverted the presence of tubulin binding sites (TBS) on intermediate filaments, like on the neurofilaments (NF) that are specifically expressed by neurons. The NFL-TBS.40-63 peptide, which corresponds to the sequence of TBS on the light subunit of NF, has showed an antiglioblastoma property in vitro and in vivo, without effect on surrounding healthy cells (neurons and astrocytes). Moreover, it induces the differentiation and maturation of oligodendrocyte precursors without impacting the viability of these cells.

Our studies, during the PhD, allowed us to exploit the NFL-TBS.40-63 peptide as a possible therapeutic agent for regenerative medicine. Indeed, we showed that the peptide penetrates passively in neural stem cells (NSCs) in vitro and in vivo, and it is not toxic for cells. After several days with the peptide, the “stem” cell properties of cells, including the capacity to proliferate and self-renew, diminish and the cells differentiate into more mature cells.

These data indicate that the NFL-TBS40-63 peptide could be a promising therapeutic agent to target endogenous brain NSCs in neurodegenerative disorders to stimulate the differentiation of these cells.

 Key words : Cell penetrating peptide, neural stem cells, targeting, differentiation