Stem cells used for a medicine assessment

Researchers from Jones Hopkins's University reported about concrete steps on a way of use of stem cells for studying of action of drugs on cells of a sick organism, reports Science Daily. The work described in the last number Nature Biotechnology, began a few years ago with studying of possibility of testing of experimental preparations on the specialized sick cells which have been grown up from induced plyuripotentny stem cells (iPSCs). Gabsan Li (Gabsang Lee) with colleagues then was withdrawn by skin cells from the person with an infrequent genetic disease, Riley-Day's syndrome. The choice of this disease was bound to that it affects only one type of nervous cells, to allocate which a traditional biopsy it is almost impossible. In experiments on verification of the concept scientists by means of known biochemical factors (they are called as Yamanaka's factors) reprogrammed skin cells in the induced plyuripotentny stem cells, capable to turn into cells of different specialization, and received from them nervous cells. "We can't study nervous cells directly, but this approach allowed us to see for the first time what exactly occurs at disease development", - Whether speaks. One of symptoms of a syndrome of Riley-Day - the lowered painful sensitivity, till 30 years lives only a half of patients.

Whether in recent research with colleagues from Memorial hospital Sloan Kettering used the same laboratorno grown-up nervous cells of a syndrome of Riley-Day for screening of seven thousand preparations. By means of the robot programmed on the analysis of their effect, scientists managed to identify quickly eight bonds for the subsequent testing, and only one - SKF-86466 - showed undoubted ability to stop or turn a course of a disease at cellular level. As Gabsan Li explained, clinical tests of SKF-86466 are impossible because of small number of patients with Riley-Day's syndrome in the world, but instead of this bond it is possible to use very similar preparation allowed for use on other indications.