Reprogramming of neurons in vivo
Scientists have reprogrammed neurons in the brains of living mice
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American scientists managed to get another type of neuron from one type by reprogramming them directly in the brain of living mice, Medical News Today reports (One Form Of Neuron Turned Into Another In The Brain). The results of the work carried out by Caroline Rouaux and Paola Arlotta from Harvard University are published in Nature Cell Biology (Direct lineage reprogramming of post-mitotic callosal neurons into corticofugal neurons in vivo – VM).
The result of five years of research by molecular biologists was the direct reprogramming of neurons of the corpus callosum connecting the two hemispheres of the brain into corticospinal motor neurons of the cerebral cortex. Scientists managed to achieve this with the help of just one protein - a transcription factor called Fezf2.
The experiment was successfully carried out on young rodents. According to scientists, it is now necessary to check whether such reprogramming is possible in the brains of adult mice, and then in humans. The fact is that the motor neurons obtained during the experiment usually die in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – a neurodegenerative disease, the development of which leads to paralysis and subsequent muscle atrophy.
"Neurodegenerative diseases usually kill neurons of any one population. For example, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis affects the corticospinal motor neurons of the brain and motor neurons of the spinal cord. So why not take nerve cells untouched by the disease and turn them directly into the kind of neurons that is dying out. If you can recreate even a small number of corticospinal neurons in a patient suffering from this disease, then this may be enough to restore basic functioning," the authors note.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru25.01.2013