The role of Nogo-A in neuronal differentiation in SH-SY5Y cells.

Parkinson's disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders, but to this day the pathophysiology of the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the Substantia nigra is not fully understood. Nogo-A, one of the most potent neurite outgrowth inhibitors of the central nervous system is thought to have a neuroprotective role as well as interfering with therapeutic research, limiting the sprouting of grafted dopaminergic neurons. This study aims at further understanding the role of Nogo-A in neuronal differentiation using the neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. Differentiation of SH-SY5Y cells with staurosporine into cells exhibiting a dopaminergic phenotype was not affected by antogonization of the Nogo-A cascade. SH-SY5Y cells were successfully transduced witha lentiviral vector-based system for delivery of a CRISPR/Cas9 plasmid targeting the Nogo-A gene, thus creating a Nogo-A knock-out cell line. The creation of a Nogo-A knock-out SH-SY5Y cell population enables and facilitates further research on the involvement of Nogo-A in neuronal differentiation and degeneration