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Method to combat Parkinson’s disease by astrocyte-to-neuron conversion

Astrocytes are non-neuronal brain cells that express a protein called PTB. It emerges that PTB depletion unlocks the potential of astrocytes to convert to neurons in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease.
  1. Ernest Arenas

    1. Ernest Arenas is in the Division of Molecular Neurobiology, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm 17177, Sweden.

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How can the neurons that degenerate in the substantia nigra region of the midbrain in Parkinson’s disease be replaced? One exciting possibility would be to convert non-neuronal cells called astrocytes, which are plentiful in the brain, into neurons. Writing in Nature, Qian et al.1 report a simple strategy that harnesses this possibility and can ameliorate neurological deficits in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease1. Their work, along with a parallel approach recently outlined by Zhou et al. in Cell2, holds huge promise for our ability to use cell-conversion strategies to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

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Nature 582, 489-490 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01817-4

References

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