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HEAD: 25_Kol_PM_Brain research City researchers create mini brains to study spinocerebellar ataxia type 12 in kolkata marwari community A team of city neurologists and researchers created ‘mini brains’ out of real human tissues and blood vessels to study the trigger for a neurological ailment that affects many, particularly in Kolkata’s Marwari community. ‘Spinocerebellar Ataxia type-12’, a disease that affects motor nerves and seriously hinders movement, is being studied by the researchers, who are now in the process of identifying medicines that could be effective against the disease. The research confirmed an earlier finding that the Marwari community is genetically predisposed to the ailment, and it also threw new light on the ailment by stating that SA-12 affects cognitive abilities. Inspired by neurologist Hrishikesh Kumar, head of neurology at the Institute of Neurosciences Kolkata, and led by Sumantra Chattarjee, director of the Centre for High Impact Neuroscience and Translational Applications, TCG CREST—where the study is being held—2 ‘human brains’ were created in the laboratory, a first in India, the researchers claimed. It is caused by gene type 12 and was first found in an Agarwal family. The research is focused on brain diseases in India, of which SA-12 is an excellent example,” added Chattarji.
It was Kumar who first told me about it, and it got me interested. Now, we had a way of creating these cells that we drove to turn into brain cells through molecular biology and other sophisticated methods,” said Chattarji. As the name suggests, it affects the spine and the back of the brain, which plays a major role in movement and coordination. Being a small community, the genetic mutations persisted and remained confined within the community. They are settled in different places and carry the SA12 gene, which is unique and affects particular communities like the Agarwals. He set up the research for us. It was a uniquely Indian challenge, and we have so many patients in Kolkata. The researchers’ aim was to understand how it affects the nervous system. they aimed to identify what exactly was going wrong in the patients’ brains While doctors see the symptoms. “We can’t go inside a living patient’s brain. So, one creates animal models for pre-clinical trials, and that is how it works traditionally. But medicines developed based on findings from animal model research don’t always work in humans. They often fail in drug trials. So, we needed human brains. Now, you can’t take cells from the brain like other organs since you need to penetrate the skull. So, we developed an alternative process—extracting a piece of skin or blood from a patient to replicate the patient’s brain. It was done through induced pluripotent stem cells that can become any cell in the body. The cells were then grown in a Petri dish to develop into a full-fledged human brain that was a replica of a real patient’s brain. “It was developed over months, with all the neurons and brain cells. It is a brain created from the genetic material of a living patient, which was created in our laboratory without touching the patient. Now, we have a diseased brain in a dish and another from an unaffected sibling of that patient,” explained Chattarji.