A team of researchers from the UK and Canada reported this week in Nature that they’ve managed to reprogram human skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells without using viruses in the process. The researchers explained that normally, modifying stem cells with viruses produces DNA modifications that greatly increase the risk of cancer in patients.

 

The innovative method not only avoids using these viruses, but the genes inserted to reprogram the cells can be removed once the process is over. This allows for a safer and more efficient method to be implemented in stem cell treatments, in addition to making the recovery less challenging for patients. The researchers have announced that they’ve managed to reprogram both mouse and human skin cells.

 

The results of this study follow the breakthrough achievements of Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University, who discovered a way of inserting four genes into the skin cells of mice or people to obtain induced pluripotent stem cells. This kind of cells was discovered by the Japanese researcher two years ago and act just like the ones from embryos with the ability to replace or regenerate body tissue.

 

But Dr Keisuke Kaji from the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and Dr Andras Nagy from the University of Toronto are the first to avoid the use of these viruses in obtaining induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS).

 

Until now, modifying stem cells was like a two edge sword: one the one hand, the use of viruses was crucial for delivering the four genes that could reprogram cells, but on the other hand, they were liable to turning into cancer-causing genes, making them unsafe for patients.

 

“This new method will advance the field of regenerative medicine, and should help understand diseases and test new drugs,” Dr Kaji said. “It is a step towards the practical use of reprogrammed cells in medicine, perhaps even eliminating the need for human embryos as a source of stem cells.”

 

By combining research, Kaji and Nagy have managed to remove not only inserted genes, but also all the traces of genetic modification from the human iPS cells, however, this is still a process that needs to be further perfected. Patients will still need to wait before benefiting from such treatments, however this is without a doubt a sign that stem cell research is going in the right direction.