The ravages of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's continue to surprise the medical neighborhood. While there is as yet virtually no cure for either, according to The Independent, science may have discovered something big. Professionals have discovered a simple process through which neurons can be made via skin cells. Post resource - Scientists create neurons from skin cells without stem cells by Newsytype.com.

A big step closer to the cure

Pathologist Dr. Gerald Crabtree and researchers at Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif., used skin cells from a 30-year-old woman to create nerve cells close to neurons that are discovered in the brain. Stem cells can be avoided completely. This is done by adding RNA to the sample instead.

Crabtree believes this neuron from skin cell breakthrough will lead to an explosion of new brain cell creations to treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and neurological diseases. Regenerating parts of the brain ravaged by Alzheimer's or spine destroyed by Parkinson's without the requirement of human stem cells is an electric prospect.

"A major problem in neurobiology has been the lack of a good human model. Neurons aren't like blood. They're not something people want to give up," Crabtree said.

A giant leap forward

Previously, scientists took genetically modified skin cells and converted them into pluripotent stem cells, which resemble embryonic stem cells. This will help produce neurons. It works pretty well. According to Crabtree's publication in the journal Nature, the great leap forward came via adding just "two shorts strands of RNA."

"It was very weird. We were astounded," said Crabtree. "What we made are neurons that are characteristic of the frontal cortex (of the brain) - what you'd imagine would be the most difficult (nerve cells) to make. They're the ones we think with, that we use to put two things together and see the connections, not the ones involved in evolutionary older emotional responses."

It will be a long time before neuron cells such as this will actually be implanted in brains and spines. Still, it is very encouraging that there are so many possibilities, Crabtree says.

A great video for help

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf36Jk03tY8

Citations

The Independent

ind.pn/qPkRPk

Induced pluripotent stem cell Wiki

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_pluripotent_stem_cell

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