US researchers have found a new, “remarkably efficient” way to generate human stem cells that could provide an alternative to using embryonic stem cells in treating disease, a study said.
The new method does not require risky genetic modification and holds huge therapeutic promise, said the lead author of the study, Derrick Rossi of Harvard Medical School.
The researchers did not go the usual route of permanently altering the genome to obtain protein factors that reprogram adult cells into human-induced plur-ipotent stem cells, or iPSCs. Instead, they developed synthetic modified messenger RNA molecules, which they called modified RNAs, that encoded the proteins, but did not integrate into the cell’s DNA. They found that repeated administration of the modified RNAs “resulted in robust expression of the reprogramming proteins in mature skin cells that were then converted to iPSCs with startling efficiency,” the study says. —AFP