Background Friedreich's ataxia is an autosomal‐recessive cerebellar ataxia caused by mutation of the frataxin gene, resulting in decreased frataxin expression, mitochondrial dysfunction, and oxidative stress. Currently, no treatment is available for Friedreich's ataxia patients. Given that levels of residual frataxin critically affect disease severity, the main goal of a specific therapy for Friedreich's ataxia is to increase frataxin levels. Objectives With the aim to accelerate the development of a new therapy for Friedreich's ataxia, we took a drug repositioning approach to identify market‐available drugs able to increase frataxin levels. Methods Using a cell‐based reporter assay to monitor variation in frataxin amount, we performed a high‐throughput screening of a library containing 853 U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved drugs. Results Among the potentially interesting candidates isolated from the screening, we focused our attention on etravirine, an antiviral drug currently in use as an anti–human immunodeficiency virus therapy. Here, we show that etravirine can promote a significant increase in frataxin levels in cells derived from Friedreich's ataxia patients, by enhancing frataxin messenger RNA translation. Importantly, frataxin accumulation in treated patient cell lines is comparable to frataxin levels in unaffected carrier cells, suggesting that etravirine could be therapeutically relevant. Indeed, etravirine treatment restores the activity of the iron‐sulphur cluster containing enzyme aconitase and confers resistance to oxidative stress in cells derived from Friedreich's ataxia patients. Conclusions Considering its excellent safety profile along with its ability to increase frataxin levels and correct some of the disease‐related defects, etravirine represents a promising candidate as a therapeutic for Friedreich's ataxia. © 2019 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society

The limited availability of hepatic tissue suitable for the treatment of liver disease and drug research encourages the generation of hepatic-like cells from alternative sources as support for the regenerative medicine. Human blood derived stem cells (BDSCs) express surface markers and genes characteristic of pluripotent stem cells and have the ability to differentiate into different cell types, including tissues of endodermal origin (i.e., liver). Therefore they can represent a valuable source of hepatocytes for medicine. In this investigation, we exploited a fast hepatic differentiation protocol to generate hepatocyte-like cells from human BDSCs using only hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and fibroblast growth factor-4 (FGF-4) as growth factors. The resulting cell population exhibited hepatic cell-like morphology and it was characterized with a variety of biological endpoint analyses. Here, we demonstrate how human BDSCs can be reprogrammed in hepatocyte-like cells by morphological, functional analysis, reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR, and Western Blot assay. This study defines a fast and easy reprogramming strategy that facilitates the differentiation of human BDSCs along a hepatic lineage and provides a framework for a helpful source in the stem cells therapy and liver disorders.