Old brain becomes a new one, in experiments on mice.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A team of scientists that includes Indian American Sunil Gandhi has cured a brain disorder in adult mice “by rebooting the rodents’ brains and allowing them to rewire themselves,” CNBC reported Wednesday.
By enabling the rigid brains of adult mice to return to the high levels of plasticity found in juvenile brains, scientists are opening new pathways to the treatment of brain injuries such as stroke.
According to Gizmag:
The UC Irvine technique involved transplanting a type of embryonic neuron into the brains of adult mice. After transplantation, these neurons expressed GABA (gamma-Aminobutyric acid), a chief inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system that aids in motor control, vision and numerous other cortical functions.
The procedure resulted in the rats brains’ reverting to the plasticity typical of a youthful organ and allowed “rapid and robust changes in neural pathways and synapses in response to learning and experience.”
While the brain’s structure remains in flux throughout a person’s life, it grows more and more difficult to break certain kinds of connections as time passes, revealed CNBC, which makes it harder for the brain to undo problems it may have undergone early in its development.
However, new findings could lead to further research into how plasticity-reversal could aid individuals who are afflicted with brain disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, reported Gizmodo India.
The team’s findings was published in the online science journal Neuron earlier this week. According to CNBC, the research was catalyzed by a grant from the High-Risk, High-Reward program at the National Institutes of Health.
“With all potential therapies involving placing cells in the brain, one has to be very cautious,” Gandhi said. “But what we hope is that this study, along with many others, begins to open the door to the therapeutic viability of cell-based approaches.”