Intrathecal delivery of human ESC-derived mesenchymal stem cell spheres promotes recovery of a primate multiple sclerosis model

Nonhuman primate experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a valuable model for multiple sclerosis, an inflammatory demyelinating disease in the central nervous system (CNS). Human embryonic stem cell-derived mesenchymal stem cells (EMSC) are effective in treating murine EAE. Yet, it remains unknown whether the EMSC efficacy is translatable to humans. Here we induced a primate EAE model in cynomolgus monkeys and delivered EMSC in spheres (EMSC(sp)) to preserve the cell viability during long-distance transportation. EMSC(sp) intrathecally injected into the CNS, remarkably reduced the clinical symptoms, brain lesions, and neuronal demyelination in the EAE monkeys during a 3-month observation. Whereas, symptoms in the vehicle control-injected EAE monkey remained and reduced slowly and MRI lesions in brain expanded. Moreover, EMSC could transdifferentiate into neural cells in vivo in the CNS of the treated animals. Supporting evidence demonstrated that EMSC(sp) cells cultured in cerebrospinal fluid from the EAE monkeys largely converted to neural cells with elevated expression of genes for neuronal markers, neurotrophic factors, and neuronal myelination. Thus, this study demonstrates that EMSC(sp) injected directly into the CNS, can attenuate the disease progression in the primate EAE model, highly encouraging for clinical translation.