Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a process to convert skin cells directly into neurons, bypassing the need to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). This breakthrough could lead to new treatments for spinal cord injuries and neurodegenerative diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
Traditionally, converting a skin cell into a neuron involves first inducing it into a pluripotent stem cell state and then differentiating it into a neuron. The MIT researchers have now simplified this process by directly reprogramming skin cells into neurons.
Working with mouse cells, the team developed a highly efficient conversion method that can generate more than 10 neurons from a single skin cell. If replicated in human cells, this approach could produce large quantities of motor neurons, potentially benefiting patients with spinal cord injuries or mobility-impairing diseases.
“We were able to achieve yields that allow us to assess whether these cells could be viable candidates for cell replacement therapies. That’s where reprogramming technologies like this can take us,” said Katie Galloway, the WM Keck Career Development Professor in Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering at MIT.
As an initial step toward therapeutic applications, the researchers demonstrated that the generated motor neurons could be successfully engrafted into mouse brains, where they integrated with host tissue.
Galloway is the senior author of two papers detailing this method, published today in Cell Systems. MIT graduate student Nathan Wang is the lead author of both papers.
The MIT team aims to further improve the efficiency of human cell conversion, which could enable large-scale neuron production for treating conditions like ALS. While clinical trials using iPSC-derived neurons to treat ALS are already underway, expanding the available number of neurons could accelerate research and therapeutic applications.
This research was funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
(ANI)
