A team of scientists from Lund University in Sweden has developed a new system that could make research into neurodegenerative disorders less difficult than it has been to date.
These researchers focused on Huntington’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that is particularly challenging to understand. In their study, they succeeded in reprogramming human skin cells into aged neurons to better study the condition.
The team’s findings were recently published in the journal Brain.
A Major Obstacle to Research
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One of the key challenges that scientists often face in experimental research is creating accurate models of specific diseases. Overcoming this hurdle would allow researchers to achieve more in their studies and develop more effective treatments.
Huntington’s disease is a prime example of a disorder that has proven difficult to model. The mechanisms underlying the disease remain elusive, partly because of the complexity involved in recreating suitable cellular or animal models, researchers said.
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Huntington’s disease is a fatal disorder, and despite the gene responsible for it being identified decades ago, there is still no effective treatment or cure.
The Lund University team believes their new method could improve the success of research into Huntington’s disease and several other neurodegenerative disorders.
Reprogrammed Skin Cells
In this study, led by Johan Jakobsson, a professor of neuroscience at Lund University, the researchers obtained skin biopsies from individuals with Huntington’s disease. They then reprogrammed these skin cells into neurons and compared them with reprogrammed neurons from people without the disorder.
The research team observed several defects in the neurons from Huntington’s disease patients. These findings may help clarify some of the underlying mechanisms of the disorder.
“Among other things, we observed that neurons from patients with Huntington’s disease have problems breaking down and recycling certain proteins, which can lead to energy deficits in these cells,” Jakobsson said.
The scientists also measured the biological age of the neurons created from skin cells. They found that the neurons retained their original biological age, meaning that the reprogrammed neurons were old. This makes the method particularly useful for studying age-related brain disorders, according to Jakobsson.
He believes their model will provide more insight into Huntington’s disease than animal models and could help researchers discover effective treatments.
Final Thoughts
The new method developed by Lund University researchers offers a more practical approach to studying Huntington’s disease by using reprogrammed aged neurons. This model provides a clearer understanding of the disease’s mechanisms, which may aid future research efforts into neurodegenerative conditions.
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References
Karolina Pircs, Janelle Drouin-Ouellet, Vivien Horváth, Jeovanis Gil, Melinda Rezeli, Raquel Garza, Daniela A Grassi, Yogita Sharma, Isabelle St-Amour, Kate Harris, Marie E Jönsson, Pia A Johansson, Romina Vuono, Shaline V Fazal, Thomas Stoker, Bob A Hersbach, Kritika Sharma, Jessica Lagerwall, Stina Lagerström, Petter Storm, Sébastien S Hébert, György Marko-Varga, Malin Parmar, Roger A Barker, Johan Jakobsson, Distinct subcellular autophagy impairments in induced neurons from patients with Huntington’s disease, Brain, Volume 145, Issue 9, September 2022, Pages 3035–3057, https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awab473
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