title: Antibody-mediated inhibition of Nogo-A signaling promotes neurite growth in PC-12 cells.
abstract: The use of a monoclonal antibody to block the neurite outgrowth inhibitor Nogo-A has been of great interest for promoting axonal recovery as a treatment for spinal cord injury. While several cellular and non-cellular assays have been developed to quantify the bioactive effects of Nogo-A signaling, demand still exists for the development of a reliable approach to characterize the effectiveness of the anti-Nogo-A antibody. In this study, we developed and validated a novel cell-based approach to facilitate the biological quantification of a Nogo-A antibody using PC-12 cells as an in vitro neuronal cell model. Changes in the mRNA levels of the neuronal differentiation markers, growth-associated protein 43 and neurofilament light-polypeptide, suggest that activation of the Nogo-A pathway suppresses axonal growth and dendrite formation in the tested cell line. We found that application of anti-Nogo-A monoclonal antibody can significantly enhance the neuronal maturity of PC-12 cells by blocking the Nogo-A inhibitory effects, providing enhanced effects on neural maturity at the molecular level. No adverse effects were observed on cell viability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Iman K
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: Yazdi
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Nima
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Taghipour
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hmaidan
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Palomba
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Shilpa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Scaria
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Munoz
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA; Department of Urology, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Boone
authors.affiliation: Department of Regenerative Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Ennio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tasciotti
keywords: Nogo-A; PC-12 cells; bioactivity; neuroregeneration