Conversion of adult human peripheral blood mononuclear cells into induced neural stem cell by using episomal vectors

•Direct generation of stably expandable iNSCs from adult human peripheral blood mononuclear cells using plasmid vectors•iNSCs can differentiate to functional neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes.•iNSCs possess region-specific characteristics and can be patterned to motor neurons.

Human neural stem cells (NSCs) hold great promise for research and therapy in neural diseases. Many studies have shown direct induction of NSCs from human fibroblasts, which require an invasive skin biopsy and a prolonged period of expansion in cell culture prior to use. Peripheral blood (PB) is routinely used in medical diagnoses, and represents a noninvasive and easily accessible source of cells. Here we show direct derivation of NSCs from adult human PB mononuclear cells (PB-MNCs) by employing episomal vectors for transgene delivery. These induced NSCs (iNSCs) can expand more than 60 passages, can exhibit NSC morphology, gene expression, differentiation potential, and self-renewing capability and can give rise to multiple functional neural subtypes and glial cells in vitro. Furthermore, the iNSCs carry a specific regional identity and have electrophysiological activity upon differentiation. Our findings provide an easily accessible approach for generating human iNSCs which will facilitate disease modeling, drug screening, and possibly regenerative medicine.