Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital created a petri dish containing human cells to study how Alzheimer's disease affects brain cells.The latest development could be a substantial step toward a cure for the disease.
Study co-senior Dr. Rudolph E. Tanzi worked with his colleagues from the Massachusetts General Hospital in growing brain cells of humans in a petri dish. The dish contained a gel that allowed the brain cells to create networks, similar to the neural pathways and networks found in the human brain. Six weeks later, the researchers introduced the gene for Alzheimer's disease when the cells were fully grown. After a few weeks, lumps and plaques, as well as spaghetti coils called tangles, formed. These plaques and tangles were considered the defining features of Alzheimer's disease.
"In this new system that we call 'Alzheimer's-in-a-dish,' we've been able to show for the first time that amyloid deposition is sufficient to lead to tangles and subsequent cell death," Tanzi said to Healthday News.
Although the petri dish does not possess other factors such as immune system cells, the researchers believe that it can still be used in testing drugs that may cure the disease in an affordable and efficient way. Current drugs and clinical trials have been using mouse models that are time-consuming and costly.
"It is a giant step forward for the field," Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy from Duke University, who is not part of the study, told the New York Times.
"It could dramatically accelerate testing of new drug candidates," he added.
Dr. Tanzi plans to use the petri dish to test 1,200 drugs in the market, as well as approximately 5,000 experimental drugs. The team should be able to test hundreds of thousands of drugs in the next few months.
Further details of the study were published in the Oct. 13 issue of Nature.
