When a neuron ages, it loses synaptic connections with other neurons, it is less able to transmit nerve impulses, and its metabolism is also altered. This process of neuronal ageing - inevitable with the passing of time - is particularly accelerated and becomes a risk factor in neurodegenerative pathologies such as Alzheimer's disease. But can the effects of ageing be reversed in cells as specialized as neurons?
A research study led by the University of Barcelona describes how brain neurons in mice can be rejuvenated through a controlled cellular reprogramming cycle that helps to recover some altered neurological properties and functions. The paper could open up new perspectives for studying neurodegenerative diseases in patients. In an innovative approach, it addresses the process of cellular rejuvenation in neurons and emphasizes the role of what are known as the Yamanaka factors, key proteins for reversing ageing that have been little studied in the nervous system.
The study, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell , is led by experts Daniel del Toro and Albert Giralt, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, the Institute of Neurosciences (UBneuro) and the Centre for the Production and Validation of Advanced Therapies (CREATIO) of the UB, IDIBAPS and the Neurodegenerative Diseases Area of the Biomedical Research Networking Center on Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), and Rüdiger Klein, from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence (Germany). The study, whose first co-author is Sofía Zaballa (UB-IDIBAPS-CIBERNED), also includes the participation of Manuel Serrano, an expert at IRB Barcelona.
Neurons rejuvenated in the cortex of the brain with Yamanaka factors
In 2012, Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka and British scientist John Gurdon were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their research into reprogramming differentiated cells back to a pluripotent cell state. The Yamanaka factors - specifically Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc - are transcription factors found throughout the scientific literature on cell reprogramming.
