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3D mini brains developed in lab
Scientists, including one of Indian origin, have developed tiny 3D \'mini-brains\' that mimic some of the human brain\'s structures and functionality and can be used to study diseases such as Alzheimer\'s and autism.
Washington : Scientists, including one of Indian origin, have developed tiny 3D 'mini-brains' that mimic some of the human brain's structures and functionality and can be used to study diseases such as Alzheimer's and autism.
The creation of these 'mini-brains' could dramatically change how new drugs are tested for effectiveness and safety, researchers said. Performing research using these balls of brain cells that grow and form brain-like structures on their own over the course of eight weeks should be superior to studying mice and rats because they are derived from human cells instead of rodents, they said.
"Ninety-five per cent of drugs that look promising when tested in animal models fail once they are tested in humans at great expense of time and money," said study leader Thomas Hartung, professor at Johns Hopkins University in US.
"We believe that the future of brain research will include less reliance on animals, more reliance on human, cell-based models," he said. Researchers, including Anupama Kumar of John Hopkins University, created the brains using what are known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These are adult cells that have been genetically reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell-like state and then are stimulated to grow into brain cells.
Cells from the skin of several healthy adults were used to create the mini-brains, but Hartung said that cells from people with certain genetic traits or certain diseases can be used to create brains to study various types of pharmaceuticals.
The brains can be used to study Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and even autism. The mini-brains are very small - at 350 micrometres in diameter, or about the size of the eye of a housefly, they are just visible to the human eye - and hundreds to thousands of exact copies can be produced in each batch.
One hundred of them can grow easily in the same petri dish in the lab. After cultivating the mini-brains for about two months, the brains developed four types of neurons and two types of support cells - astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, the latter of which go on to create myelin, which insulates the neuron's axons and allows them to communicate faster.
