Year: 2019
Type: preprint
Abstract: Brain disorders, from neurodegenerative to psychiatric disorders, are among the most challenging conditions to study because of the intricate nature of the human brain and the limitations of existing model systems in recapitulating all these intricacies.However, innovations in stem cell technologies now allow us to reprogram patient somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which can then be differentiated to disease-relevant neural and glial cells.iPSCs are a valuable tool to model brain disorders, as they can be derived from patients with known symptom histories, genetics, and drug-response profiles.Here, we discuss the premise and validity of the iPSC-based in vitro model system and highlight key findings from the most commonly studied neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders.N europsychiatric and neurodegenerative dis- orders constitute a bulk of brain disorders, contributing significantly to the global burden of disease.The uniquely human abilities of higherorder thought, symbolic abstract thought, and the ability to generate and share complex ideas emerged along with a large brain.Disorders of the brain are therefore challenging to study as no single model system fully encapsulates the complexity of the human brain, one of the least accessible organs within the body.While postmortem data can provide information regarding the end-stage pathology of a disease, its causes and consequences remain difficult to parse.While animal models provide a complex and live system that enables us to study specific endophenotypes of disorders, they do not fully recapitulate the complex human-specific pathology.Therefore, more model systems are required.
Institution: Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: G352863456, Assessing cellular aging in old and rejuvenated neurons from Alzheimer patients, 3/3-Schizophrenia Genetics and Brain Somatic Mosaicism, Combinatorial Actions of Genetic Variants and Gender Bias of Alzherimer's Disease, The Enhancer Code of AD-A Genetic Approach, iPSC-based platform development for major psychiatric disorder modeling and discovery, Understanding the cell biological drivers of aging as risk factors for cognitive impairment, G9000031709, G9000055537, Dynamics of activity-induced transcription in single dentate granule cells, Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG)
OpenAlex ID: W2989707678