{"id":17704,"date":"2018-07-11T09:41:51","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T09:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/?p=17704"},"modified":"2018-07-11T09:41:51","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T09:41:51","slug":"mini-brains-grown-brain-studies-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/mini-brains-grown-brain-studies-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mini-Brains Grown in Lab for Brain Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-fullwidth-1  fusion-parallax-none nonhundred-percent-fullwidth\" style=\"border-bottom-width: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-bottom-style: solid;border-top-style: solid;padding-bottom:20px;padding-top:20px;padding-left:;padding-right:;\"><style type=\"text\/css\" scoped=\"scoped\">.fusion-fullwidth-1 {\r\n                            padding-left: px !important;\r\n                            padding-right: px !important;\r\n                        }<\/style><div class=\"fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-title title fusion-title-center fusion-title-size-one\"><div class=\"title-sep-container title-sep-container-left\"><div class=\"title-sep sep-double sep-solid\" style=\"border-color:#a36160;\"><\/div><\/div><h1 class=\"title-heading-center\"><span style=\"color: #a36160;\">Mini-Brains Grown in Lab to Study DISC1 Mutations<\/span><\/h1><div class=\"title-sep-container title-sep-container-right\"><div class=\"title-sep sep-double sep-solid\" style=\"border-color:#a36160;\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-sep-clear\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep sep-none\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:;\"><\/div><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Researchers from <strong>Brigham<\/strong> and <strong>Women\u2019s Hospital<\/strong> are creating new technologies for gene-editing tools and <strong>mini-brains<\/strong>\u00a0to better understand the <strong>effects of DISC1 mutations<\/strong> in cerebaral organoids.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The reason for this study is due to major mental illnesses such as <strong>schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder<\/strong> and many more which <strong>share a common genetic link<\/strong> in the brain. Previous studies have shown that people affected from these illnesses share a mutation in the gene <strong>DISC1<\/strong>. There are already existing studies about how <strong>DISC1 mutations alter the brain<\/strong>, but just in animal models. To show this development in the human brain is much more difficult, so researchers had to find the right tools.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Thanks to advancements in engineering human stem cells researchers are now enabled to <strong>grow mini-brains in labs<\/strong> and <strong>insert mutations<\/strong> into those cells. Those so called <strong>\u201cmini-brains\u201d<\/strong> can be very helpful for modelling brain development, <strong>not only the two-dimensional, but also three-dimensional<\/strong> structure and function of the cells.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The researchers were using a specific tool called <strong>CRISPR-Cas9<\/strong> to <strong>compare mini-brains<\/strong> grown from stem cells with and without this specific DISC1 mutation. The result was, that <strong>mini-brains with the DISC1 mutation<\/strong> showed <strong>structural disruptions<\/strong>. More specifically, the <strong>fluid-filled spaces<\/strong> in the mutated brains were more <strong>numerous and smaller<\/strong>, which means that although the cells are present, they are <strong>not in their expected location<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Additionally, DISC1-mutant mini-brains showed <strong>increased signalling<\/strong> in the <strong>WNT pathway<\/strong>. The WNT pathway is important for patterning organs, especially when it comes to bipolar disorders. So, researchers <strong>added an inhibitor of the WNT pathway to the growing DISC1-mutant mini-brains<\/strong> and had been able to <strong>rescue<\/strong> those. Conclusion of this study is that the <strong>WNT pathway may be responsible<\/strong> for the observed structural disruption in the brains with a DISC1 mutation, and could be a potential target pathway for future therapies.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-sep-clear\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-separator fusion-full-width-sep sep-none\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;margin-top:;\"><\/div><p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">References:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Science Daily 04\/2018). 3-D human &lsquo;mini brains&rsquo; shed new light for major mental illnesses https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2018\/04\/18041914150.htm. Accessed on: 12\/05\/2018<\/li>\n<li>Bulletin. Mini Brains Shed Light on Mutations Tied to Mental Illnesses. https:\/\/bwhbulletin.org\/2018\/05\/04\/mini-brains-shed-light-on-mutation-tied-to-mental-illnesses\/ Accessed on: 12\/05\/2018<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17822,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","myguten_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}