Alternative Brain Disease Treatment Found

South Korean scientists have developed an alternative to the use of stem cells for treating chronic brain diseases.

With ethical issues concerning use of discarded embryos and technical problems hindering development of stem cell therapies, the Korean scientists reported the first successful use of a drug-like molecule to transform human muscle cells into nerve cells.

Injae Shin and colleagues at Yonsei University say their discovery might eventually lead to new treatments for stroke, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and other neurological disorders.

The researchers exposed immature mouse muscle cells called myoblasts growing in cell cultures to neurodazine — a synthetic small molecule. After one week, 40 percent to 50 percent of the myoblasts were transformed into cells resembling the structure and function of nerve cells, including expression of neuron-specific proteins.

Additional studies showed a similar transformation in a group of human skeletal muscle cells exposed to the same chemical.

“We have developed the first small molecule that can induce neurogenesis of non-pluripotent myoblasts and the cells derived from mature, human skeletal muscle,†the scientists wrote.

Their research is to appear in the Aug. 8 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.