Resumen de Reprogrammed cells may ease Parkinson's
Using a virus to reprogram cells in the brain could be a radical way to treat Parkinson's disease. Ernest Arenas at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and his team have found a new way to replace lost dopamine-making neurons. They injected a virus into the brains of mice whose dopamine neurons had been destroyed. This virus had been engineered to carry four genes for reprogramming astrocytes--the brain's support cells--into dopamine neurons. Five weeks later, the team saw improvements in how the mice moved. "They walked better and their gait showed less asymmetry than controls," says Arenas.
