No, it's not the latest software from Apple.
iPSCs are induced pluripotent stem cells, so let's break that down. Basically, by turning on some genes or introducing the proteins made by those genes to adult skin cells, they can be rejuvenated and resemble embryonic cells. This means that these cells are no longer specified, but rather pluripotent, or able to become many different types of cells, mutation-free. Well, sometimes. About half the time, this backfires, and the animals its tested on get cancer. It's still a work in progress, but in the next ten years human testing may begin.
Now, there's something that piqued my curiosity in this article. Alzheimer's disease was mentioned a few times as a disease that these iPSCs could cure. However, the mutation that causes or makes people more prone to Alzheimer's is unknown. It could be APOEε4 or TREM2, or a variety of other genes, or a combination of all of them. So if they can't isolate the mutation, how are scientists going to use iPSCs to cure it (they said right now they are only dealing with single mutation diseases)? Younger brain cells might be able to cure it, but I had no idea what was going on. So I googled it. Scientists are doing this study on the amyloid-β peptide and oxidative stress, two issues that can be resolved with iPSCs. But it's largely composed of guesswork, and the mechanism is unknown. Okay.
Sorry that was a little off-topic, but it was really curious. Until next time!
This post also got me curious, so I googled, as well. Apparently, researchers are using these iPSCs to create Alzheimer's neurons for drug testing in order to arrest the progression of Alzheimer’s and, if they can, also treat the symptoms of it. So I think right now they're looking more into slowing it down and treating certain symptoms of Alzheimer's, but not necessarily curing it.
ReplyDeleteWooh it's a party here!
ReplyDeleteI have a question. In the future, when they've cleaned out all the bugs and glitches in the iPSC, do you think it could be used for any type of disease? It could be anything from Parkinson's to AIDS. And do you think it could also be used to cure any mental illnesses?
Karina, that's really interesting, and makes a lot of sense! I wish I had come across that study! I wonder how hard it must be to recreate a neuron (with electrical pulses and chemicals and such).
ReplyDeleteAnd Rena, I would really like to see it used on AIDS, since you know, destructive, easily transmissible disease without a cure. I bet it would be a large-scale undertaking though, since the whole body is affected by it. As far as mental illness, I think it would depend (like depression because of chemical imbalance versus serious dementia, one would be much easier to fix than the other). We should definitely Google this some more, it's really interesting!