Regenerative Medicine  

One of the most controversial, but promising areas of research that the science community is involved with is with stem cells. Discoveries continue to excite the scientific community as well as the general public.  Here are seven such breakthroughs that we have seen so far.

Stem cell research has been one of the most controversial forms of research that the science community is involved with. The discoveries continue to excite the scientific community as well as the general public, as the media follows this closely. Following are seven of the most promising developments in stem cell study thus far.

Cloning to Create Embryonic Stem Cells

Embryonic stem cells are the most preferred as they have the ability to change into any other type of cell in the human body. For years scientists were only able to retrieve these cells from human embryos, a process that was wrought with many technical and ethical setbacks. Oregon Health & Science University researchers developed a cloning technique that allows for the creation of cells in the embryonic stage.

Three-dimensional liver bud from human iPSC in vitro. Image Source - Yokohama City University

Lab-Grown Liver Tissue

As a step forward in overcoming donor organ shortages, scientists at the Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine were able to grow tissue from induced pluripotent stem cells. This tissue began to develop like a functional liver would, offering a promising look into the ability to create lab-produced tissue for restoring organs damaged by injury and disease.

Stem-Like Cells Offer Potential for Targeting Breast Cancer

Scientists at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center discovered that targeting Twist, an accelerant of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of human cells may prove beneficial in treating triple negative breast cancer. This aggressive form of cancer has an enhanced EMT program, providing it with increased flexibility to adapt to stressful environments during wound healing and metastasis. Thus, the tumor cells have qualities similar to those of stem cells, making them resistant to various therapies with increased chance for early metastasis.

Stem cell research has been one of the most controversial forms of research that the science community is involved with.

Related articles Scientists Now Able To Convert Human Skin Cells Into Embryonic Stem Cells  Regenerative Medicine Breakthrough - Fat Cells Converted Into Liver Cells  3D Printing Breakthrough With Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Stem Cells Grow Into a Beating Heart

Scientists have begun to develop methods for using stem cells to produce human heart tissue. As a groundbreaking development in the pursuit of lab-manufactured organs, this tissue is able to contract on its own. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania generated induced pluripotent stem cells from human skin. The iPS cells were then created into precursor heart cells.

Protein Synthesis Studied in Stem Cells

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center discovered that protein synthesis can be studied in adult stem cells. Many believe cancers and degenerative diseases are related to mutations that offset this process. The discovery will help researchers better understand why changes in protein synthesis are linked to disease.

Scientists Grow Mini-Brains

Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology at the Austrian Academy of Sciences were able to produce their own brain tissue that developed into "cerebral organoids" after three weeks. The organoids showed continuous tissue around a fluid-filled cavity like that in a natural brain. More defined regions of the brain, including a cerebral cortex, continued to grow and after two-months fully developed mini-brains were produced.

Stem Cell Nutrition

A new a growing trend in the world of nutritional supplements is stem cell nutrition. Research claims that the more stem cells you have circulating in your body, the more healthy your organs are because they have more cells to build with. Who knew a decade ago that we'd be eating this stuff? Pushing the technology even further, researchers are making good progress in developing in vitro meat derived from stem cells as well.


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By Hannah Whittenly

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Author Bio - Hannah Whittenly is a freelance writer and mother of two from Sacramento, CA.

 neuroscience  

Researchers have discovered important new properties in a common brain receptor that has been implicated in a wide range of neurological disorders. The discovery may help in the development of drugs to combat the disorders.

For several years, the pharmaceutical industry has tried to develop drugs that target a specific neurotransmitter receptor in the brain, the NMDA receptor.

The receptor is present on almost every neuron in the human brain and is involved in learning and memory. NMDA receptors also have been implicated in several neurological and psychiatric conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia and depression.

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But drug companies have had little success developing clinically effective drugs that target this receptor.

Now, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University's Vollum Institute believe they may understand why. And what they've discovered may help in the development of new therapies for these conditions.

In a paper published in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, OHSU scientists describe their work on NMDA receptors. There are various types of NMDA receptors, resulting from differences in the protein components that make up the receptor. These differences in the protein components produce receptors with varying properties.

As drug companies have worked to develop compounds that manipulate the activity of these receptors, the focus of much of this drug discovery effort has been on a specific NMDA receptor subtype. In their Journal of Neuroscience paper, the OHSU scientists describe their discovery — that the specific receptor subtype that drug companies have seen as a target is an almost nonexistent contributor of NMDA receptor action.

What does exist, the OHSU scientists found, was a different kind of NMDA receptor subtype — one containing two specific protein components, called GluN2A and GluN2B. NMDA receptors containing these two components were not thought to be very common. The OHSU study found that not only was this NMDA receptor subtype more common than previously believed, it was the most common subtype at synapses. And it was far more common than the receptor subtype that has been the target of drug development efforts.

"What our paper shows is that one reason no drugs have worked well to this point may be because that particular NMDA receptor subtype isn't there in high quantities. The target they've been looking for isn't the target that's there," said Ken Tovar, Ph.D., a senior postdoctoral fellow at the Vollum Institute. Tovar's co-authors on the paper were Gary Westbrook, M.D., senior scientist and co-director of the Vollum Institute, and Matthew McGinley, Ph.D., a former graduate student in the Westbrook laboratory.

Tovar said these findings could provide a new target for drug development.

"If you know what's there, then you know what to go after — you just have to figure out how to do it," Tovar said.

The OHSU study also provides clues into how the function of this most common NMDA receptor subtype might be manipulated. Highly specific drugs interact with either GluN2A or GluN2B. Tovar and colleagues demonstrated that when GluN2A and GluN2B coexist in the same receptor, molecules that targeted GluN2A change the behavior of the receptor in ways that could be clinically beneficial.

"NMDA receptors have been implicated in a diverse list of neurological and psychiatric conditions. Thus, the more we know about how to modulate the behavior of the receptors that are there — at synapses — the greater chance we have of finding drugs to treat these conditions," Tovar said.

"From the perspective of drug development, knowing the nature of your target is one way to keep drug development costs down," said Tovar. "Spending resources investigating a target that turns out to be unimportant means those costs get passed on to the drugs that are effective."



SOURCE  Oregon Health & Science University via Eurekalert

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