Antipsychotics promote neural differentiation of human iPS cell-derived neural stem cells

We investigated the effects of antipsychotics on human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived neural stem cell (NSC) differentiation. Induction of NSCs from hiPSCs was performed using PSC neural induction medium. Induced NSCs were subsequently cultured in neural differentiation medium containing antipsychotics. Cultured cells were subjected to neural differentiation marker analysis. As previously shown in rodent cells, antipsychotics promoted neural differentiation compared with vehicle treatment. Atypical antipsychotics appear to possess more differentiation induction potential than typical ones. Most NSCs do not express dopamine D2 receptor; however, our in vitro study indicates the clinical potential of antipsychotics could include effects independent of monoamine receptor expression in NSCs. Our study shows NSCs derived from hiPSCs provide opportunity to investigate the underlying direct effect of antipsychotics treatment on NSCs.