In our latest attempts to make lab rats immortal, a new compound has been shown to reverse late stage Alzheimer’s disease in lab mice. This is a rare case where the title isn’t even clickbait.
In our latest attempts to make lab rats immortal, a new compound has been shown to reverse late stage Alzheimer’s disease in lab mice. This is a rare case where the title isn’t even clickbait.
Right so Alzheimer’s results in the death of neurons.
Humans cannot regrow neurons. Most animals cannot.
The few exceptions are in one small area of the brains limbic system.
Again. Not supported to happen in humans. But some theories say it might.
Even so. There is no drug that can restore neurons lost.
No drug that can restore the connections between neurons that are lost.
There already were drugs discovered 20 years ago that cure rats of AD related plaques and tau proteins. Doesn’t work in humans . Probably because those rats are genetically engineered to produce plaques and tau proteins.
Not the same as a human disease model.
Might be a stupid question, but could stem cells do that?
the problem would be getting a specific type of stem cell to do that, likely a pluripotent rather than a totipotent(which is usually a blastocyst after fertiliation) to differentiate into a nerve cell and not continue growing or dividing. because cancer behaves pretty much like a stem cells, if not some are stem cells themselves.
You should really look up human brain organoids, how they are created, and what we are doing with them. You can rent one and make it…do…think things. Sometimes they grow eyes.
They don’t just randomly sprout eyes, you have to give them the hormone that makes eyes develop to have them start.
The most recent Radiolab episode was on exactly that topic.
https://radiolab.org/podcast/brain-balls