iPSC has significant advantages in treating CNS diseasesThere are many types of central nervous system (CNS) diseases, which can be roughly divided into developmental, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative diseases according to age of onset. Among them, developmental nervous system diseases include Down's syndrome, autism spectrum disorders, etc.; mental nervous system diseases include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression; common neurodegenerative diseases include Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), etc.

In recent years, the number of CNS patients has gradually increased. In terms of Alzheimer's disease alone, the number of patients is expected to increase to more than 100 million in 2050.According to statistics from Fross Sullivan, the global CNS drug market is expected to maintain steady growth in the next 15 years, reaching US$172.1 billion in 2034 and US$57.1 billion in China.Although the market potential is very large, there is still a large amount of unfinished demand for CNS treatment.

Last Friday, Professor Deng Hongkui, a scientist in the field of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, won the Future Science Award known as the "China Nobel Prize", which swept the circle of friends in the biomedical industry. Regenerative medicine represented by iPSC is very exciting in both scientific research and industry. Replacing diseased or damaged cells is a major goal of regenerative medicine. When disease or aging causes damage to the body, if you can replace the damaged cells with new cells, it is as if time can go back and people can "rejuvenate".

iPSC has significant advantages in treating CNS diseases. It has strong differentiation and regeneration ability and can be induced to differentiate into different types of cells required by the human body under specific conditions; at the same time, iPSC can be derived from the patient's own cells and has low immunogenicity, which can reduce the risk of immune rejection after transplantation, which makes iPSC cell drugs better safety and tolerability in the treatment of nervous system diseases; In addition, iPSC treatment can accurately control the differentiation direction and number of cells, which is expected to achieve better therapeutic effects.

There are many companies deploying iPSC in China, and the field of nervous system diseases is one of the main directions. It is worth mentioning that domestic enterprises have burst into innovation potential, and many companies have achieved outstanding results (the following examples are ranked in no particular order).

In January this year, Shize Biotech completed the transplantation of clinic-grade autologous iPSC-derived dopaminergic nerve precursor cell injection via minimally invasive surgery for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. This is China's first clinic-grade iPS-derived cell transplantation for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. It is also the first case in China and the second case in the world that autologous iPS-derived cells are used to replace Parkinson's disease.

NouvNeu001 injection, a human dopaminergic precursor cell therapy product independently developed by Ruijian Pharmaceutical, is the world's first chemical induction-based universal cell therapy product in the field of Parkinson's treatment to enter the clinical stage of new drug registration.

Chengnuo Medical's ALF201 is the world's first clinically approved iPSC-derived cell candidate for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke and has entered the clinical trial stage.

Huode Bioengineering iPSC-derived pre-cerebral nerve precursor cells injection hNPC01 is the world's first pluripotent stem cell-derived pre-cerebral nerve precursor cell therapeutic product that has received FDA registration and clinical approval. According to the latest published data, as of April 29, the project's registered clinical and clinical studies have completed dosing to 13 subjects 16 to 58 months after stroke, and a follow-up period of up to nearly 5 months. The health status of all subjects is stable.

In addition, companies such as Zhongsheng Traceability, Yuesai Biotech, and Ruizhen Regenerative Medicine have also made arrangements in the field of iPSC cell drugs for the treatment of CNS diseases and are accelerating their advancement.

Ms. Chen Lijuan, acting CEO of Yuesai Biotech, once said in an interview with Fengke: "BlueRock and Neurona have released clinical trial data on their stem cell drug pipelines this year, which is very encouraging, which represents stem cell therapy. cutting-edge progress in the fields of Parkinson's disease (PD) and epilepsy. Yuesai Biotech is also currently advancing the process of its pipeline under research for Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. It can be seen that its peers have obtained good data performance in the clinical stage, which is also a powerful demonstration of the safety and effectiveness of Yuesai's pipeline under research and cell therapy."

It can be seen that domestic iPSC technology is rapidly emerging, and many candidate products have entered the clinical trial stage. Against the background of a late start in the country, this speed can be regarded as "catching up".