The Future of Neuroregeneration

Abstract

As the average lifespan for humans is growing, neurodegenerative diseases are becoming more common. The two most common neurodegenerative diseases are Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Both of these diseases cause the progressive degeneration of the central nervous system (CNS). To combat the effects of these disorders it’s crucial to be able to regenerate the lost neurons. The issue is that cells in the brain reduce their plasticity as age increases, leading to little to no regeneration of the lost cells. Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) is a new avenue of research regarding neuroregeneration as the ability to specialize them into neurons provides a method to combat the progressive degenerative nature of neurodegenerative diseases. Research in AD has shown successful experiments in specializing iPSCs into glial cells and cholinergic neurons to improve memory loss in AD mice. Research in PD has shown a method to specialize iPSC to neurons and thereby obtaining patient-specific transplants. The transplants and their effects have been successful in many animal models, leading to the potential of clinical trials in the near future.