Inhibiting or deleting just a single gene, the gene that encodes PTB, transforms several types of mouse cells directly into neurons.
More recently researchers are applying it in what could one day be a new therapeutic approach for Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. Just a single treatment to inhibit PTB in mice converted native astrocytes, star-shaped support cells of the brain, into neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. As a result, the mice’s Parkinson’s disease symptoms disappeared.
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