- Ando, Miki;
- Nishimura, Toshinobu;
- Yamazaki, Satoshi;
- Yamaguchi, Tomoyuki;
- Kawana-Tachikawa, Ai;
- Hayama, Tomonari;
- Nakauchi, Yusuke;
- Ando, Jun;
- Ota, Yasunori;
- Takahashi, Satoshi;
- Nishimura, Ken;
- Ohtaka, Manami;
- Nakanishi, Mahito;
- Miles, John J;
- Burrows, Scott R;
- Brenner, Malcolm K;
- Nakauchi, Hiromitsu
The discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has created promising new avenues for therapies in regenerative medicine. However, the tumorigenic potential of undifferentiated iPSCs is a major safety concern for clinical translation. To address this issue, we demonstrated the efficacy of suicide gene therapy by introducing inducible caspase-9 (iC9) into iPSCs. Activation of iC9 with a specific chemical inducer of dimerization (CID) initiates a caspase cascade that eliminates iPSCs and tumors originated from iPSCs. We introduced this iC9/CID safeguard system into a previously reported iPSC-derived, rejuvenated cytotoxic T lymphocyte (rejCTL) therapy model and confirmed that we can generate rejCTLs from iPSCs expressing high levels of iC9 without disturbing antigen-specific killing activity. iC9-expressing rejCTLs exert antitumor effects in vivo. The system efficiently and safely induces apoptosis in these rejCTLs. These results unite to suggest that the iC9/CID safeguard system is a promising tool for future iPSC-mediated approaches to clinical therapy.