![]() Using only one of the molecules was not enough to convert the astrocytes into neurons. In fact, the best three-drug combination was 20 percent less effective than the four-drug one. No three-drug formula, however, was as effective as the four-drug version. The outer portion contains neurons, and the inner area communicates with the cerebral cortex. Like the cerebral cortex, it has two hemispheres. The team also tested the effect of dropping one of the four molecules from the formula. The cerebellum (little brain) is a fist-sized portion of the brain located at the back of the head, below the temporal and occipital lobes and above the brainstem. “By using four molecules,” explains first study author Jiu-Chao Yin, who is a graduate student in biology at Penn State, “that modulate four critical signaling pathways in human astrocytes, we can efficiently turn human astrocytes - as many as 70 percent - into functional neurons.” The researchers tested hundreds of combinations until they found an effective formula comprising “four core drugs.” So, the aim of the new study was to find a smaller combination of the molecules that can reprogram astrocytes into functioning neurons in a more straightforward way. ![]() However, when they explored how to translate the method from the laboratory to the clinic, they realized that it was too complicated. ![]() ![]() New techniques were employed recently to show this is not true. Chen and his team had shown that it was possible to “chemically reprogram” a type of glial cell called astrocytes into neurons using nine small molecules in a certain sequence. Among the many neuromyths circulating in the scientific literature, perhaps the most famous one states that the human brain has a round number of one hundred billion neurons, and ten times more glial cells. ![]()
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