A recent study by a group of Australian researchers, published in the prestigious journal Nature, could revolutionize medicine in terms of regenerative therapies. The research proposes an innovative approach capable of "erasing the memory" of stem cells.
The aim is to reactivate their potential to transform into any other type of cell that may be needed. This possibility of more precise "reprogramming" could revolutionize regenerative medicine, affecting treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, among others.
Overcoming the epigenetic memory barrier
Medicine has long been studying induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. iPS cells are stem cells from an adult organism that have been induced to regain the embryonic characteristic of pluripotency, i.e., the ability to become any other cell.
However, researchers have constantly encountered an obstacle behind the "cell reprogramming" process: epigenetic memory. In simple terms, this means that even after being reprogrammed back into a cell with the potential to become any other cell, the reprogrammed cell "remembers the path it took" to become the adult cell it was before and retraces that path.
More technically, "epigenetics" is everything that is "beyond genetics." All of our cells have the same underlying DNA. The changes that occur in each cell, beyond its genetics, and transform it into another cell is the epigenome.
How the innovative method can solve this
The innovation of the Australian study lies precisely in a revolutionary method that should prevent epigenetic memory from overriding the stem cell reprogramming process. The idea is to mimic the natural epigenetic redefinition, which takes place during embryonic development.
After analyzing each process of how the epigenome is transformed in adult cells that are reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells, the scientists created a new stage in this reprogramming process. The new stage "mimics" the "natural restart" and erases this epigenetic memory, preventing the cell from reverting to what it had become in the adult organism. The idea is that it has the potential to become another type of cell needed for different treatments.
The possibility of overcoming the epigenetic memory barrier opens many new doors to regenerative medicine. With a cell reprogramming process more likely to succeed, science can use the potential of stem cells to study new and more effective treatments for different diseases in the future.
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