Jing Nai-ho: Explore the possibility of stem cell treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: Professor Jing has been engaged in the molecular mechanism of central nervous system development and the regulatory mechanism of pluripotent stem cell neurodirectional induction differentiation for 20 years.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that has not been treated medically well since it was discovered in 1907.
recently, the author interviewed Jing Nai-ho, a researcher at the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his team is actively exploring the possibility of treating Alzheimer's disease with stem cells.
, a professor, has been engaged in the study of molecular mechanisms for the development of the central nervous system and the regulatory mechanisms for neurodirectional induction differentiation of pluripotent stem cells for 20 years.
In recent years, considering that "biomedical research should be closely linked to human health," Professor Jing has turned his research to neurodegenerative diseases, and one of the important things is to induce human ernicnic stem cells to differentiate into neurons with specific functions and explore the possibility of stem cells treating neurodegenerative diseases.
01A beta hypothesis as a common neurodegenerative disease, Alzheimer's disease is hidden, more often in the middle-aged and elderly groups.
According to the Alzheimer's Society's 2018 Alzheimer's Facts and Figures report, the number of alzheimer's patients aged 65 and over will reach 7.1 million by 2025, up nearly 29 percent from 5.5 million people of the same age in 2018.
unless medical breakthroughs are made, the number of alzheimer's patients aged 65 and over could rise from 5.5 million to 13.8 million by 2050, almost three times as many.
, AD typical pathological features include age spots, nerve fiber tangles, and a large number of neuron deaths.
, the main component of geriatric plaque is beta-amyloid protein (A beta), while the main component of nerve fiber entanglement is the overly phosphatized Tau protein.
, the "two camps" derived from these two pathological molecules, A-beta and Tau proteins: A-beta and Tau.
currently, global research into Alzheimer's disease is focused on medication.
AD drugs entering clinical trials accounted for about 43% of drugs based on the A-beta therapy, about 10% of drugs based on the Tau therapy, and 47% of other mechanism drugs.
02 scientists who do not follow the current flow, although the "amyloid protein hypothesis" has always been the most central hypothesis in AD, but including Lilly, Mercado and other pharmaceutical companies, including a number of anti-A beta drugs have failed, which makes many people began to doubt its correctness.
15-20 years before the onset of Alzheimer's disease, toxic beta-amyloid molecules have accumulated in the patient's brain.
when a patient's consciousness is impaired, the neurons in his brain have died in large numbers, leading to brain atrophy.
this case, it is difficult to save dead neurons by using drugs to remove starchy deposits or entanglements in nerve fibers.
that many of the drugs developed under the A-beta hypothesis have failed, which is a reminder that we need to look at the pathogenic factors of Alzheimer's disease in a new light.
, he said, there are many different angles to studying Alzheimer's disease, such as Professor Zhong Chunxuan of Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai, who starts with metabolism to solve the problem.
has been described as type 3 diabetes, and many studies have shown that insulin resistance causes brain lesions that can cause Alzheimer's disease.
in his lab, we also saw "differences" -- the use of stem cells to treat Alzheimer's disease.
", for a certain class of neurons that are prioritized for death or injury, can some brain cognitive function be restored if these neurons are replenished? With this kind of thinking, he began a different study.
combined with years of accumulation of research on "stem cells", Jing and his team established an in-body nerve-induced method to induce embryonic stem cells to differentiate into acetylcholine neurons in the substrate foreblades.
these prescellular cells into the abdominal frontal brain positions of Alzheimer's model mice.
a few months later, model mice injected with acetylcholine-energy neuron prescient cells had improved their behavioral abilities, such as learning and memory.
results, published in the 2015 issue of Stem Cell Reports, give hope of conquering Alzheimer's disease.
's initial idea wasn't supported by other teams, and now looking back on the original choice, Professor Jing smiled and said, "At first I thought it wasn't possible, but impossible, if you don't do it, it's never going to happen."
"Since 2002, Lilly, Pfizer, Roche and other multinational pharmaceutical companies have invested more than 200 billion U.S. dollars in AD new drug research and development, however, in more than 200 clinical studies, only 1 successful AD drugs, drug research and development failure rate of up to 99.6%, known as the pharmaceutical industry's "Everest."
so far, there are only five FDA-approved AD drugs.
, Professor Jing believes that most drug development ideas are how to reduce or reduce the production of A-beta, a peptide, but close to "blocking" is not enough.
because the accumulation of A-beta occurred a long time ago, during which a large number of neurons died.
in this case, using drugs to remove tangles in amyloid deposits or nerve fibers does not replenish the neurons of death, so in Phase III clinical trials, it is difficult for the drug to improve the patient's impaired cognitive abilities.
the use of stem cells to treat Alzheimer's disease in 2003 is a whole new field, and new opportunities present new challenges.
, "The first thing you need to think about is what cells to choose and where to apply them, " says Professor Jing Nai-ho.
In the beginning, we thought that there was a specific class of neurons in the abdominal preconse, a special projection of the hippocemia and the cerebral cortical layer, that could play an important role in learning memory and cognition, so our previous years focused on inducing stem cells into this particular class of neurons, which were then transplanted into the abdominal frontal brains of Alzheimer's mice to observe behavioral repair, and we saw meaningful results.
recent years, Jing found that specific neurons were not necessarily the best choice, so they wanted to explore the possibility of using human neural stem cells because they might be more differentiated.
confirmed that the cognitive impairment of injecting these stem cells into the hema region of the brains of AD mice was indeed well repaired.
this year, the focus of the Jing nai-ho research group will shift to primates.
" also means more challenges, as primates do not currently have suitable animal models for Alzheimer's disease.
Jing said.
the end of the interview, for scientific research, Professor Jing said that the overall level of scientific research in China is constantly improving.
he also mentioned that scientific research could be considered to address significant social needs, as the solution of those problems could greatly reduce the burden on society and the family.
this means it's difficult, but if you don't do it, you'll never be able to solve it.
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