What is it about?
In this study cell senescence was induced using chemicals that could inhibit protein hemostasis and DNA repair in embryonic like neurons and these chemicals cause aging like phenotypes. This approach successfully tested with ALS disease cells, and ALS neurons after treatment with chemicals showed signs of senescence and degeneration.
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Why is it important?
Neurons derived from stem cells are young and have embryonic age and not showing disease phenotypes specially when scientists are studying age related diseases like neurodegeneration in AD, PD or ALS. Our approach enables using stem cells derived neurons to study late onset diseases that comes with age by enhancing disease phenotypes in neurons and perhaps other cell models as well.
Perspectives
I hope that this article spark the idea of inducing ageing in neurons using chemicals, and other scientists in other fields of biology could use it to model ageing by using our cocktail of molecules or developing their own cocktail with their own cell model. I believe this approach could help us to better understand ageing and age related disorders and also to help fight against neurodegeneration.
Ali Fathi
University of Wisconsin Madison
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Chemically induced senescence in human stem cell‐derived neurons promotes phenotypic presentation of neurodegeneration, Aging Cell, December 2021, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/acel.13541.
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