This new method is a significant leap forward in reprogramming human adult cells, say experts.
Credit: AFP
WASHINGTON: Synthetic modified messenger RNA molecules can cause human stem cells to regenerate, which could provide an alternative to using embryonic stem cells in treating disease, a recent study said.
This new method does not require risky genetic modification and holds huge therapeutic promise, said lead author Derrick Rossi of Harvard Medical School.
The researchers did not go the usual route of permanently altering the genome to obtain protein factors that reprogram adult cells into human-induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs.
Modified RNAs quick to reprogram
Instead, they developed synthetic modified messenger RNA molecules - which they called modified RNAs - that encoded the proteins, but did not integrate into the cell’s DNA.
They found, to their surprise, that repeated administration of the modified RNAs "resulted in robust expression of the reprogramming proteins in mature skin cells that were then converted to iPSCs with startling efficiency," the study says.
"We weren’t really expecting the modified RNAs to work so effectively, but the reprogramming efficiencies we observed with our approach were very high," Rossi said.
Free from genetic mutation risk
Currently, clinical application of iPSCs is hampered by, among others, inefficient means of generating pluripotent stem cells.
Pluripotency means the cell can differentiate to become any cell in the body, be it a skin cell, heart cell, blood cell: anything. Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent.
In the study, RNA-induced iPSCs with an RNA associated with muscle cell development caused cells to differentiate into muscle cells. Differentiation was simple, efficient and "without the immediate risk of inducing genetic mutations," the study says.
Safe way to reprogram human adult cells
"Our technology represents a safe, efficient strategy for somatic cell reprogramming and directing cell fate that has wide ranging applicability for basic research, disease modelling and regenerative medicine," said Rossi.
