The Stars in Our Brains – Duke Department of Neurology
By daniellenierenberg
More than 10 million people worldwideabout 1 percent of people over age 60live with Parkinsons disease. There are treatments that can help control symptoms, but there is no cure.
The hallmark of the disease is the death of certain brain cellsneurons that produce dopamine. Most Parkinsons researchers have focused on studying these cells. But what if the disease starts elsewhere? What if it involves not only neurons but other cells that interact with neurons? In particular, what role is played by astrocytes, star-shaped cells that nurture and help form the connections, or synapses, between the neurons?
(This article by Angela Spivey, with photos by Alex Boerner, originally appeared in Duke Medical Alumni News. Read that story here.)
Thats the question a team of Duke researchers led by Cagla Eroglu, PhD, associate professor of cell biology and neurobiology, is exploring, thanks to a $1 million grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
Sitting in her office, Eroglu picks up an orange plastic object that resembles a piece of coral, its tentacles branching this way and that. This is a model of a mouse astrocyte, she says. It can interact with 100,000 synapses at the same time. Astrocytes, she explains, infiltrate the brain, touching everything within their reach. They communicate with its synapses, regulating blood flow and metabolism.
Astrocytes from the Greek astron, meaning "star"have traditionally been thought of as support cells. But that thinking is changing. Since astrocytes are in such close contact and continuously communicating with synapses, we are beginning to appreciate that they are also fundamentally involved in regulating brain function, Eroglu says.
Collaborating with Albert La Spada, MD, PhD, Eroglu found that a certain gene known to be important in Parkinsons is more highly expressed in astrocytes than in neurons. And when the researchers mutated that gene in astrocytes, they saw some intriguing changes. This still-unpublished work laid the foundation for their proposal to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which is bringing together experimental scientists from divergent fields to take a fresh look at the causes of neurodegenerative disorders.
There are vanishingly few papers that have delved into how astrocytes are contributing to the Parkinsons disease process, says La Spada, professor of neurology and vice chair of research for the Department of Neurology. This is an area that's been under-studied, and I think that the results that we're generating are suggesting that it deserves more attention.In addition to his long experience studying neurodegenerative diseases, La Spada brings expertise in growing astrocytes from induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs). That process starts by growing skin cells from a skin biopsy from a Parkinsons patient. Then we use what's called a reprogramming protocol to basically revert them to stem cells that are pluripotent. Once you create the IPSCs, you could use them to make any cell you wanta muscle cell or a cardiac cell or a neuron or an astrocyte, La Spada says. The beauty of this is, it comes from the patient who has the disease of interest."
His labs expertise will only grow because of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which has formed focus groups for grantees around various areas, such as stem cell modeling, CRISPR gene-editing technology, bioinformatic analysis of data sets, and more. We're meeting other researchers from around the world who are doing really unique things. It's a chance for us all to compare notes, and I think this will accelerate all of our endeavors, La Spada says.
Rounding out the team is Nicole Calakos, MD, PhD, a scientist and clinician who treats patients with movement disorders, including Parkinsons. Calakos says that when she first met Eroglu, she was intrigued by her idea that since astrocytes are involved in sculpting the language of neurons, perhaps they play a role in the events that can lead to disease.
Everybody has been fixated like a magnet on the idea that the problem is the neuron that's dying, Calakos says. Cagla said, Hey, let's think outside of the box of that dead cell. Lets consider whether astrocytes are like the soil around a plant, providing the nutrition, and allowing it to form roots, and maybe that is whats broken. Why aren't we even thinking about this critical piece of the brain?
Eroglu puts it this way: Maybe the problem is loss of connections between neurons, even before they die.
Calakos says that part of the reason she came to Duke was the close intermingling of physicians and bench scientists. Because of how the community is at Duke, Cagla and I had been exchanging ideas and collaborating over the years, she says. The Chan Zuckerberg grant is an opportunity to get together as a formal team. I think it's really forward-thinking of them to have teams of basic scientists and practicing physicians all talking to each other.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was launched in December 2015 by Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, and Priscilla Chan, a pediatrician and founder and CEO of The Primary School in East Palo Alto. In addition to her clinical insight, Calakos brings expertise in electrophysiologyreal-time recording and observation of electrical signals coming from brain cells. We can listen to the language of synapses, she says. They speak in electrical currents,which we can measure. Eroglu believes that by learning all they can about how astrocytes support synaptic development and health in the normal brain, they may find ways to stop neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinsons.
We are seeing aging as a part of development, Eroglu says. If your house is built on a strong base, then it might last longer. Whereas, if you build it in another way, it may be there for a while, but gradually start to break down.
This doesn't mean that we are destined to have neurodegeneration and we can't do anything. We may be more predisposed to get the disease, but we may not get it if we have done something else in our lives that helps strengthen our brain. I strongly believe that there will be ways to stop neurodegeneration.We will find a way to strengthen the brain connections. If we can figure out the weakest link, then we could concentrate on solving that.
More:
The Stars in Our Brains - Duke Department of Neurology
- UMass Amherst Engineers Create Bioelectronic Mesh Capable of Growing with Cardiac Tissues for Comprehensive ... - Diagnostic and Interventional... - March 26th, 2024
- Stressing heart cells to study disease - AIP.ORG - American Institute of Physics - March 18th, 2024
- 'Heart-on-a-chip' to test chemotherapies and other cancer drugs for heart toxicity - Medical Xpress - February 7th, 2024
- Treating and preventing abnormal heart beats with stem cell muscle grafts - Medical Xpress - February 7th, 2024
- Stem Cell Therapy Boosts Quality of Life for People With Advanced Heart Failure - MedicineNet - December 20th, 2023
- Regenerative medicine can be a boon for those with Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis - Hindustan Times - April 21st, 2023
- Cardiac stem cells: Current knowledge and future prospects - April 13th, 2023
- Stem cell therapies in cardiac diseases: Current status and future ... - April 13th, 2023
- Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology | Johns Hopkins Heart and Vascular ... - April 13th, 2023
- Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics - Cardiac Regeneration - April 13th, 2023
- MAGENTA THERAPEUTICS, INC. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS (form 10-K) - Marketscreener.com - March 25th, 2023
- CAREDX, INC. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS (form 10-K) - Marketscreener.com - March 1st, 2023
- A Possible Connection between Mild Allergic Airway Responses and Cardiovascular Risk Featured in Toxicological Sciences - Newswise - February 4th, 2023
- Baby's life saved by surgeon who carried out world's first surgery ... - December 25th, 2022
- An organoid model of colorectal circulating tumor cells with stem cell ... - December 25th, 2022
- Skeletal Muscle Cell Induction from Pluripotent Stem Cells - December 1st, 2022
- Stem-cell niche - Wikipedia - December 1st, 2022
- Scientists Discover Protein Partners that Could Heal Heart Muscle | Newsroom - UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine - October 13th, 2022
- Global Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell ((iPSC) Market to Reach $0 Thousand by 2027 - Yahoo Finance - October 13th, 2022
- Scientists Spliced Human Brain Tissue Into The Brains of Baby Rats - ScienceAlert - October 13th, 2022
- Decoding the transcriptome of calcified atherosclerotic plaque at single-cell resolution | Communications Biology - Nature.com - October 13th, 2022
- Global Synthetic Stem Cells Market Is Expected To Reach Around USD 42 Million By 2025 - openPR - October 13th, 2022
- Merck and Moderna Announce Exercise of Option by Merck for Joint Development and Commercialization of Investigational Personalized Cancer Vaccine -... - October 13th, 2022
- Regenerative Medicine For Heart Diseases: How It Is Better Than Conventional Treatments | TheHealthSite.co - TheHealthSite - October 5th, 2022
- 'Love hormone' oxytocin could help reverse damage from heart attacks via cell regeneration - Study Finds - October 5th, 2022
- Recapitulating Inflammation: How to Use the Colon Intestine-Chip to Study Complex Mechanisms of IBD - Pharmaceutical Executive - September 27th, 2022
- Adult Stem Cells // Center for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine ... - September 19th, 2022
- CCL7 as a novel inflammatory mediator in cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, and kidney disease - Cardiovascular Diabetology - Cardiovascular... - September 19th, 2022
- Kite's CAR T-cell Therapy Yescarta First in Europe to Receive Positive CHMP Opinion for Use in Second-line Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma and... - September 19th, 2022
- Neural crest - Wikipedia - September 3rd, 2022
- Rise In Number Of CROS In Various Regions Such As Europe Is Expected To Fuel The Growth Of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Market At An Impressive CAGR... - September 3rd, 2022
- Discover the Mental and Physical Health Benefits of Fasting - Intelligent Living - September 3rd, 2022
- Heart Association fellowship to support research - Binghamton - August 26th, 2022
- Repeated intravenous administration of hiPSC-MSCs enhance the efficacy of cell-based therapy in tissue regeneration | Communications Biology -... - August 26th, 2022
- High intensity interval training protects the heart against acute myocardial infarction through SDF-1a, CXCR4 receptors and c-kit levels - Newswise - August 26th, 2022
- Yale University: Uncovering New Approaches to a Common Inherited Heart Disorder | India Education - India Education Diary - August 10th, 2022
- Heart failure in obesity: insights from proteomics in patients treated with or without weight-loss surgery | International Journal of Obesity -... - August 10th, 2022
- Pigs died after heart attacks. Scientists brought their cells back to life. - Popular Science - August 10th, 2022
- Protocol for a Nested, Retrospective Study of the Australian Placental Transfusion Study Cohort - Cureus - August 10th, 2022
- Autologous Cell Therapy Market Size to Grow by USD 4.11 billion, Bayer AG and Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. Among Key Vendors - Technavio - PR... - August 2nd, 2022
- UTSW researcher part of team awarded $36 million heart research grant - The Dallas Morning News - August 2nd, 2022
- Buffalo center fuels research that can save your life from heart disease and stroke - Buffalo News - August 2nd, 2022
- Hyperglycaemia-Induced Impairment of the Autorhythmicity and Gap Junction Activity of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocyte-Like Cells -... - July 25th, 2022
- NASA's Solution to Stem Cell Production is Out of this World - BioSpace - July 25th, 2022
- Inhibition of pancreatic EZH2 restores progenitor insulin in T1D donor | Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy - Nature.com - July 25th, 2022
- 'My Teen Sweetheart And I Drifted Apart. 30 Years Later I Made a Shocking Discovery' - Newsweek - July 25th, 2022
- EU: New Blood? Proposed Revisions to the EUs Blood, Tissues and Cells Rules - GlobalComplianceNews - July 25th, 2022
- Stem Cells Market to Expand at a CAGR of 10.4% from 2021 to 2028 Travel Adventure Cinema - Travel Adventure Cinema - July 25th, 2022
- Cell Separation Technologies Market Expands with Rise in Prevalence of Chronic Diseases, States TMR Study - GlobeNewswire - July 25th, 2022
- Dental Membrane and Bone Graft Substitutes Market to Exceed Value of US$ 1,337 Mn by 2031 - PR Newswire UK - July 25th, 2022
- Stem Cells Used to Repair Heart Defects in Children - NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth - July 16th, 2022
- Pneumonia and Heart Disease: What You Should Know - Healthline - July 16th, 2022
- Promising solution to fatal genetic-disorder complications discovered by University professor and Ph.D. candidate - Nevada Today - July 16th, 2022
- Current and advanced therapies for chronic wound infection - The Pharmaceutical Journal - July 16th, 2022
- Why do some women struggle to breastfeed? A UCSC researcher on what we know, and don't - Lookout Santa Cruz - July 16th, 2022
- Mesenchymal stem cells: from roots to boost - PMC - July 8th, 2022
- New study allows researchers to more efficiently form human heart cells from stem cells - University of Wisconsin-Madison - July 8th, 2022
- Dr Victor Chang saved hundreds of lives. 31 years ago today, he was murdered. - Mamamia - July 8th, 2022
- Exosome Therapeutics Market Research Report Size, Share, New Trends and Opportunity, Competitive Analysis and Future Forecast Designer Women -... - July 8th, 2022
- Cell Line Development Market: Increase in Prevalence of Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases to Drive the Market - BioSpace - July 8th, 2022
- Homology Medicines Announces Peer-Reviewed Publication on Novel Discovery of AAVHSC with Robust Distribution to the Central Nervous System and... - July 8th, 2022
- What New Advances are there in 3D Bioprinting Tissues? - AZoM - June 30th, 2022
- Technical Advancements & Innovative Products Likely to Expand Application of Surgical Meshes in Untapped Domains, States Fact.MR - BioSpace - June 30th, 2022
- Liso-cel Approval Provides Earlier, Expanded Access to CAR T-cell Therapy in Second-line LBCL - OncLive - June 30th, 2022
- Stem cells, embryos, and the environment: a context for both science ... - June 20th, 2022
- Getting to the heart of engineering a heart - Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - June 11th, 2022
- 'Ghost heart': Built from the scaffolding of a pig and the patient's cells, this cardiac breakthrough may soon be ready for transplant into humans -... - June 11th, 2022
- Current and Future Innovations in Stem Cell Technologies - Labmate Online - June 11th, 2022
- Bioabsorbable Stents Market to Grow at a Fine CAGR of 9.6% through 2032: Improvements in Healthcare Infrastructure and Growing Geriatric Population to... - June 11th, 2022
- Is a Bioengineered Heart From Recipient Tissues the Answer to the Shortage of Donors in Heart Transplantation? - Cureus - May 29th, 2022
- Global Heart Failure Pipeline Market Research Report 2022: Comprehensive Insights About 90+ Companies and 90+ Pipeline Drugs - ResearchAndMarkets.com... - May 29th, 2022
- Whats a heart attack? How can you tell if youre on the edge of one? - Sydney Morning Herald - May 29th, 2022
- Heart, cancer and diabetes projects among winners of funding boost for stem cell therapies - The Globe and Mail - May 13th, 2022
- Meet the Canadian researcher determined to take the animals out of lab testing - CBC.ca - May 13th, 2022
- Stem cell-based regenerative medicine - PMC - April 29th, 2022
- Global Stem Cell Market To Be Driven By Increasing Activities To Use Stem Cells In Regenerative Medicines In The Forecast Period Of 2022-2027 ... - April 29th, 2022
- Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center Finds CAR-T Therapy Effective in Black and Hispanic Patients - Newswise - April 29th, 2022
- Global, regional, and national burden of hypertensive heart disease during 19902019: an analysis of the global burden of disease study 2019 - BMC... - April 29th, 2022
- First all-private astronaut team aboard space station heads for splashdown - KFGO - April 29th, 2022
- James Woody, CEO of 180 Life Sciences: Developing New Therapies to Treat Inflammatory Diseases - DocWire News - April 29th, 2022