Scientists from around the world have managed to create the first cells from the cells that make up the human brain, a revolutionary work that opens perspectives for the development of treatments and cures for brain diseases such as schizophrenia or Alzheimer’s.
A total of 21 research studies, which make up the cellular atlas of the brain, will be published this Friday in a special edition of the scientific journal Science, as well as in the publications Science Advances and Science Translational Medicine.
The studies are the result of work carried out by scientists from around the world in the so-called BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) – Cell Census Network (BICCN), a consortium of centers in the United States and Europe that since 2014 has been working on the characterization of cell types and their functions in the brains of humans, non-human primates and rodents.
Cell type characterization is the process of identifying, classifying and describing different cell types based on their unique characteristics, properties and functions.
The human brain is made up of 86 billion neurons and a similar number of non-neuronal cells.
Researchers have characterized more than three thousand types of human brain cells, revealing characteristics that distinguish humans from other primates.
Scientists predict that such detailed identification of brain cells will identify the cell types most affected by specific mutations that cause neurological diseases.
But in a broader sense, the cellular atlas of the brain will open new doors to understanding how millions of neurons work together to form a network that is the basis of what makes up a human being: their thoughts, emotions and behaviors.
Joseph Ecker, director of the Genomic Analysis Laboratory at the Salk Institute in the United States, one of the institutions that are part of the BRAIN Initiative, declared in a statement that the set of 21 studies “is the beginning of a new era of brain analysis”.
“We will be able to better understand how the brain develops, ages and suffers from diseases,” Ecker added.
Scientists have noticed that all human brain cells contain the same DNA sequence, but each type of cell uses different genes copied into strands of RNA, and in different quantities, to create proteins.
This variation produces many different types of brain cells and contributes to the complexity of neural circuits.
One of the main goals of the project was to understand what features of brain cell organization are specific to humans, compared to those of non-human primates.
Research has shown that the neurons of chimpanzees, primates that share the most recent ancestor with humans, are more similar to the neurons of gorillas than to those of humans.
Understanding the molecular differences between these cell types is critical to understanding how the brain works, how DNA mutations cause brain diseases, and to developing new forms of treatment for neuropsychiatric disorders.
One of the studies, led by scientists at the University of San Diego, analyzed more than 1.1 million cells from 42 regions of three human brains to generate a detailed map of genetic changes in brain cell types.
The study, which identified 107 different subtypes of brain cells, also revealed connections between certain cell types and several neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, Alzheimer’s and depression.
Scientists have also developed artificial intelligence (AI) tools to predict how certain variations in DNA sequence could influence gene regulation and contribute to disease.
Source: TSF
