Release date: 2016-04-27
Recently, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University in the United States have confirmed a critical path for Zika virus-induced microcephaly and other fetal brain damage through a study of a needle-sized mini-brain cultured in the laboratory. - Construct specific stem cells of the outer cortex of the brain by infection. In the past few years, the Zika virus has spread in some countries in the Americas, causing panic among local people.
It is worth mentioning that scientists say the mini brains they used in this study are more realistic and cheaper than similar research models. And these actually benefited from the contributions of three high school students. According to Tiangong, the three high school students are the sons of two of the school's scientists and two of them, who are doing summer research internships in this project. They first got the idea to use a 3D printer to create a device that can train the mini brain. These so-called bioreactors and their mini-brains will open up a valuable new window for human brain development, brain disorders and drug testing, researchers say.
A report on the study was published on the website of Cell magazine on April 22.
“We have been working for three years to develop a better research model for brain development. Fortunately, we can now use this mini brain to reveal the major public health crisis caused by Zika infection.†Song Hongjun, a professor of neurology at the Institute of Engineering, said: "This more realistic 3D model confirms our suspicion: Zika mainly builds neural progenitors of the brain by attack and turns them into virus factories to cause fetal microcephaly. â€
In recent years, researchers in various fields have begun to use stem cells to culture micro-organs to better understand organ growth and disease, and to speed up the search for new drugs. But because of the clothing nature of the brain structure, the technology used to create and use the mini brain is very limited, Professor Song Hongjun said. Although these mini-brains are only needle-sized, they are relatively large in bioreactors, about the size of a beverage can. The high cost of nutrients and growth factors required to culture human stem cells in the laboratory makes the use of mini brains costly to study. Professor Song Hongjun said that few laboratories can afford the cost of cultivating enough mini brains for research.
Today, Professor Song Hongjun and his wife and research partner Professor Ming Guoli unexpectedly got help from their son and two other high school students, using a 3D printer to improve the bioreactor in the laboratory. The bioreactors developed by the three high school students have a 12-well assay plate that rotates the liquid and cells at the correct speed to form the brain.
Of course, it is much more than that simple. Professor Song Hongjun said that graduate student Xuyu Qian and postdoctoral researcher Ha Nam Nguyen have conducted many years of research to determine the optimal rotational speed and when chemical and growth factors should be added to produce the desired results.
So far, the research team has used this new type of biological reaction, named SpinΩ, to create three types of mini-brains that mimic the front, middle, and back of the human brain. They used the forebrain to study the Zika virus.
"One thing that the mini brain allows us to do is to simulate the effects of the Zika virus at different stages of pregnancy," Professor Ming Guoli said. "If the infection occurs in the early stages of development, the virus mainly infects the neural precursor cells of the minibrain, the effect will be very serious, and soon the mini brain will stop growing and disintegrate; at a later stage, in the 4-6 of pregnancy. In the month, Zika still preferentially infects neural progenitor cells, in addition to affecting some neurons, causing it to grow slowly, and its cortex is thinner than normal brains.†She concluded that during pregnancy, Zika The earlier the virus infection occurs, the more serious the impact.
It is understood that the research team will next test the drugs on the mini brain that have been approved by the FDA for other conditions to see if there is a certain drug that can help protect Zika.
(Compiled from Johns Hopkins University)
Source: Tiangongshe
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