Researchers may have brought us closer to a cure for Parkinson’s disease, after finding a way to replace the brain cells destroyed by the disease. In a study published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, researchers reveal how they transformed non-neuronal brain cells into brain cells that produce dopamine. The team identified four genes that, when combined with transcription factors, converted human astrocytes into cells that closely resembled dopamine-producing cells. Not only were the astrocytes transformed into functioning dopamine cells, but also they showed reductions in Parkinson’s symptoms.
A cure for Parkinson’s?
