Cells in your urine could restore your brain power.
Cells extracted from urine have been transformed into brain cells, potentially providing a new way to treat degenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. Chinese researchers have found a new way to tweak the DNA of kidney cells so they take on a radically new role.
Stem cells – cells that can convert into any kind in the body – offer great promise for treating neurodegenerative diseases, replacing brain cells that have been damaged or destroyed. But stem cells taken from embryos pose ethical concerns, while cells taken from adults and reprogrammed into stem cells are more likely to develop genetic mutations.
In this new research, biologists at several Chinese institutions isolated cells from the kidneys in the urine of three donors. Instead of using a virus to reprogramme the cells – the technique usually employed with cells taken from adults – they used a small circular piece of bacterial DNA. This replicates in the cell’s cytoplasm, the gel-like substance within a cell membrane. While viruses integrate the reprogramming genes into the cell’s chromosomes – increasing the risk of mutations – the bacterial DNA works its magic from the cytoplasm.
These reprogrammed cells formed neural progenitors, cells that can form different types of nerve cell. They were then driven to produce mature brain cells that could generate nervous impulses.But what about the ‘yuk factor’ of using cells from a patient’s urine to restore their brain? Professor Duanqing Pei at the Chinese Academy of Sciences who is involved with the study, isn’t concerned. “Urine cells are sterile and easy to obtain,” he says. It’s this availability of raw material cells compared with using blood samples and biopsies, and the reduced risk of mutation, that make this approach so attractive.
By Zoe Cormier in "BBC Focus Science and Technology", issue 252, March 2013. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.