Via Scoop.it – ALS Lou Gehrig’s Disease
While applications of induced pluripotent stem cells in stem cell therapy may be limited to a few diseases, its applications in drug discovery are wide-ranging, and many more diseases can be targeted, Shinya Yamanaka, Director, Centre for iPS Cell Research and Application, Japan, has said. iPS cells hold out for humanity a lot of hope in curing diseases that have a single cell cause. Prominent among them are Lou Gehrig’s Disease or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease. Motor neurons degenerate and die, and no effective treatment exists thus far. One reason is that there have not been good disease models for ALS in humans. It is difficult to get motor neuron from human patients and motor neurons cannot divide. Now, iPS cells can proliferate and can be differentiated to make motor neurons in large numbers,” he explained. Already a scientist in Japan has clarified motor neuron cells from iPS. “We are hoping that in the near future we would be able to evolve drug candidates that will be useful for ALS patients.” Treatment of spinal cord injuries using iPS cells has showed good results in mice and monkey specimens, and it is likely that in two or three years, scientists will be ready to start treatment for humans.
Via www.thehindu.com
ALS Research News 