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    Home > Biochemistry News > Biotechnology News > Laboratory cultivation of "mini brains": potential treatments for motor neuron disease and frontotemporal dementia

    Laboratory cultivation of "mini brains": potential treatments for motor neuron disease and frontotemporal dementia

    • Last Update: 2021-11-01
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    Picture: Mini brain organ showing cortical structure

    Source: Andras Lakatos/University of Cambridge

    Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a "mini brain" that allows them to study a deadly, incurable neurological disease that can lead to paralysis and dementia, and this is the first time they have been able to cultivate this in nearly a year.


    Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a common motor neuron disease that often overlaps with frontotemporal dementia (ALS/FTD) and can affect young people, mainly after 40-45 years of age


    In general, organoids commonly referred to as "mini-organs" are increasingly being used to simulate human biology and disease


    Normally, researchers extract cells from the skin of patients and reprogram these cells to return to the stem cell stage


    Scientists at the John Van Gist Brain Repair Center at the University of Cambridge used stem cells from ALS/FTD patients to grow brain organs


    Although this is not the first time scientists have cultivated the mini-brains of patients with neurodegenerative diseases, most efforts can only cultivate them in a relatively short period of time, which represents a limited range of diseases related to dementia


    Dr.


    "In order to get close to capturing this complexity, we need longer-lived models and replicate the composition of human brain cell populations that normally interfere.


    Although organoids usually grow in the form of cell balls, the first author, Dr.


    Dr.


    In this way, Dr.


    Dr.


    In addition to helping to understand the development of the disease, organoids can also be a powerful tool for screening potential drugs to determine which drugs can prevent or slow the progression of the disease


    The research team found that a drug called GSK2606414 can effectively alleviate common cellular problems in ALS/FTD patients, including the accumulation of toxic proteins, cellular stress, and loss of nerve cells, thereby blocking a pathway that leads to the disease


    Dr.


    Dr.
    Lakatos added: "At present, we do not have a very effective method to treat ALS/FTD.
    Although there is still a lot of work to be done after our discovery, it at least gives us hope and may be able to prevent it in time.
    Or slow down the disease process
    .
    "

    "In the future, it is also possible to extract skin cells from patients, reprogram them to grow'mini brains', and test which unique drug combination is best for their disease
    .

    Article title

    Human ALS/FTD Brain Organoid Slice Cultures Display Distinct Early Astrocyte and Targetable Neuronal Pathology

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