MELBOURNE, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Researchers from Australia and New Zealand have developed 3D "mini brains" that they hope will speed up the search for treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune condition affecting almost three million people worldwide.
The research team used reprogrammed adult stem cells to engineer a human-like central nervous system cell model about the size of a grain of rice, according to a statement released Friday by Australia's Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health.
The "mini brains" cell model provides a detailed cellular view of myelin destruction and regeneration in human cells, and would allow researchers to see drugs working in near-real time on human cells, according to the study published in Nature Neuroscience.
Myelin is a fatty sheath that covers and protects nerve fibers and allows messages, via electrical impulses, to travel quickly around the brain, spinal cord and body. In MS, the immune system mistakenly attacks myelin, causing nerve damage and disability, researchers said, adding that existing MS medications can only treat symptoms and slow progression, with no therapies currently available to repair the damage.
The study's senior author Associate Professor Samantha Barton of the Florey Institute said the cell model, which took more than six years to develop, allows researchers to introduce immune cells to trigger injury similar to MS and study myelin repair.
"This model can help researchers better understand what drives myelin damage and repair in MS and it also gives us a new platform to screen drugs that protect or restore myelin," Barton said. ■
