Induced polypotent stem cells: nanoparticles instead of viruses
The American company PrimeGen has announced that it has managed to develop a safe way to convert tissue cells into cells similar in properties to polypotent stem cells. The cells obtained by the new method do not contain vector viruses - this significantly reduces the likelihood of their degeneration into malignant tumors.
Induced polypotent stem cells (iPS cells) obtained from skin cells and other tissues of the adult body are considered one of the most promising areas of cellular technologies. Like embryonic stem cells, they can transform into cells of all types of tissues, but they do not need to destroy human embryos to teach them. In addition, such cells can be obtained from the cells of the patient himself – in this case they will be genetically identical to the patient's tissues and will not be rejected by his immune system during transplantation.
The first viable human iPS cell lines were created last year by two independent groups of scientists from Japan and the USA. In both cases, retroviruses carrying additional copies of genes regulating the processes of cell differentiation were used to transform cells. The cell lines obtained in this way were infected with vector viruses, which significantly increased the likelihood of their degeneration into potentially malignant cells. In addition, additional copies of genes were embedded in the genome and passed on to all subsequent generations of stem cells, which could also lead to unforeseen negative consequences.
PrimeGen specialists managed to circumvent these problems by replacing retroviruses with carbon particles to which the necessary copies of genes were attached. Once in the cell, these genes performed their functions, but they were not embedded in the genome and were not passed on to subsequent generations of cells.
The company managed to obtain induced polypotent stem cells from skin, kidney and retina cells. Another advantage of the new method, according to the developers, is its high productivity. For example, it took Japanese scientists about a month to get stem cell colonies of their skin cells. PrimeGen technology allows you to reduce the time of cell transformation to one week and increase the number of cell lines by several hundred times.
Source: Stem cell breakthrough may reduce cancer risk – New Scientist, 02/27/2008
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Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru03.03.2008