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The Potential of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Treat and Model Alzheimer's Disease

An estimated 6.2 million Americans aged 65 or older are currently living with Alzheimer's disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease that disrupts an individual's ability to function independently through the degeneration of key regions in the brain, including but not limited to the hippoca...

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Autor principal: Schulz, Joseph M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8172295/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34122554
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/5511630
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author Schulz, Joseph M.
author_facet Schulz, Joseph M.
author_sort Schulz, Joseph M.
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description An estimated 6.2 million Americans aged 65 or older are currently living with Alzheimer's disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease that disrupts an individual's ability to function independently through the degeneration of key regions in the brain, including but not limited to the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex, and the motor cortex. The cause of this degeneration is not known, but research has found two proteins that undergo posttranslational modifications: tau, a protein concentrated in the axons of neurons, and amyloid precursor protein (APP), a protein concentrated near the synapse. Through mechanisms that have yet to be elucidated, the accumulation of these two proteins in their abnormal aggregate forms leads to the neurodegeneration that is characteristic of AD. Until the invention of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in 2006, the bulk of research was carried out using transgenic animal models that offered little promise in their ability to translate well from benchtop to bedside, creating a bottleneck in the development of therapeutics. However, with iPSC, patient-specific cell cultures can be utilized to create models based on human cells. These human cells have the potential to avoid issues in translatability that have plagued animal models by providing researchers with a model that closely resembles and mimics the neurons found in humans. By using human iPSC technology, researchers can create more accurate models of AD ex vivo while also focusing on regenerative medicine using iPSC in vivo. The following review focuses on the current uses of iPSC and how they have the potential to regenerate damaged neuronal tissue, in the hopes that these technologies can assist in getting through the bottleneck of AD therapeutic research.
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spelling pubmed-81722952021-06-11 The Potential of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Treat and Model Alzheimer's Disease Schulz, Joseph M. Stem Cells Int Review Article An estimated 6.2 million Americans aged 65 or older are currently living with Alzheimer's disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease that disrupts an individual's ability to function independently through the degeneration of key regions in the brain, including but not limited to the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex, and the motor cortex. The cause of this degeneration is not known, but research has found two proteins that undergo posttranslational modifications: tau, a protein concentrated in the axons of neurons, and amyloid precursor protein (APP), a protein concentrated near the synapse. Through mechanisms that have yet to be elucidated, the accumulation of these two proteins in their abnormal aggregate forms leads to the neurodegeneration that is characteristic of AD. Until the invention of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in 2006, the bulk of research was carried out using transgenic animal models that offered little promise in their ability to translate well from benchtop to bedside, creating a bottleneck in the development of therapeutics. However, with iPSC, patient-specific cell cultures can be utilized to create models based on human cells. These human cells have the potential to avoid issues in translatability that have plagued animal models by providing researchers with a model that closely resembles and mimics the neurons found in humans. By using human iPSC technology, researchers can create more accurate models of AD ex vivo while also focusing on regenerative medicine using iPSC in vivo. The following review focuses on the current uses of iPSC and how they have the potential to regenerate damaged neuronal tissue, in the hopes that these technologies can assist in getting through the bottleneck of AD therapeutic research. Hindawi 2021-05-26 /pmc/articles/PMC8172295/ /pubmed/34122554 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/5511630 Text en Copyright © 2021 Joseph M. Schulz. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Article
Schulz, Joseph M.
The Potential of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Treat and Model Alzheimer's Disease
title The Potential of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Treat and Model Alzheimer's Disease
title_full The Potential of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Treat and Model Alzheimer's Disease
title_fullStr The Potential of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Treat and Model Alzheimer's Disease
title_full_unstemmed The Potential of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Treat and Model Alzheimer's Disease
title_short The Potential of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Treat and Model Alzheimer's Disease
title_sort potential of induced pluripotent stem cells to treat and model alzheimer's disease
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8172295/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34122554
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/5511630
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