Synthetic mammalian neuromuscular junction and method of screening for a candidate drug thereon
AssigneeUniversity of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc.
InventorsJames Hickman, Xiufang Guo
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Abstract
A method for forming neuromuscular junctions includes forming functional neuromuscular junctions between motoneurons and muscle cells by co-culturing one or more human motoneurons and one or more human muscle cells in a substantially serum-free medium. A synthetic mammalian neuromuscular junction includes a human motoneuron functionally linked to a human muscle cell in a substantially serum-free medium. An artificial substrate may be used to support the one or more neuromuscular junctions.
Claims13
A method of screening for a candidate therapeutic drug for a neuromuscular disease, the method comprising:
- co-culturing differentiated human skeletal muscle stem cells adhered to an artificial surface and overlayered with differentiated human spinal cord stem cells in a serum-free medium;
- forming at least one functional neuromuscular junction between a differentiated human skeletal muscle stem cell and a differentiated human spinal cord stem cell;
- contacting the at least one functional neuromuscular junction with a candidate drug;
- and monitoring the at least one functional neuromuscular junction following contact with the candidate drug, wherein the monitoring comprises recording one or more electrophysiological properties of the co-culture or video recording of the co-culture.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.