The Hong Kong Baptist University announced on May 21 that its research team has invented a new nano-matrix that can quickly cultivate micro-brain-like structures to replace damaged parts of the brain. This invention helps improve Parkinson ’s The disease condition brings new inspiration for the treatment of this disease.
Professor Weng Jianlin (right) of the Department of Biology, who leads the research team, and Dr. Huang Zhifeng, associate professor of the Department of Physics, have discovered that they can stimulate neural stem cells to differentiate into nerve cells Nanomatrix is expected to treat Parkinson’s disease. Hong Kong Baptist University’s official website map
Professor Weng Jianlin (right) of the Department of Biology, who leads the research team, and Dr. Huang Zhifeng, associate professor of the Department of Physics, have discovered that they can stimulate neural stem cells to differentiate into nerve cells Nanomatrix is expected to treat Parkinson’s disease. Hong Kong Baptist University’s official website map
The research was completed by a research team led by Weng Jianlin, a professor of the HKBU Biology Department, and Huang Zhifeng, an associate professor of the Physics Department. According to reports, Parkinson’s disease is a common neurodegenerative disease. The cause is the degeneration of “dopamine neurons” in an important part of the brain stem called “substantia nigra”, which fails to produce enough neurotransmitter “dopamine”, resulting Impaired physical activity and motor function. Traditional stem cell therapy requires the use of multiple chemical growth factors, which may increase the risk of cancer.
The nanomatrix invented this time can induce neural stem cells to quickly cultivate “miniature nigra-like structures”. This structure is mainly composed of “dopamine neurons”, which can replace damaged or degenerated cells in the “substantia nigra” part of the brain. The nanomatrix is a silicon wafer coated with a nanostructure layer, with a thickness of only 550 to 730 nanometers, and the surface is covered with trillions of lightning-shaped structures. When the nanomatrix comes into contact with neural stem cells, it produces a “physical massage” effect, which induces the stem cells to split into “dopamine neurons.” Since no chemical growth factors are used in the process, the risk of cancer can be greatly reduced.
The research team used rats with Parkinson ’s disease to conduct experiments. The researchers transplanted the “miniature nigra-like structure” cultured from nanomatrix into the brains of mice . The results showed that the condition of all mice improved from the eighth week after transplantation. In the eighteenth week, “dopamine neurons” reappeared and were widely distributed around the mouse brain transplantation site, and there was no sign of tumor growth. The control group of mice without transplantation showed no improvement.
Weng Jianlin said that the results of the study showed that these miniature brain-like structures ideally survived and functioned in the brains of mice, making their early Parkinson’s symptoms gradually improved. He said that this invention has great potential and may be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease and some cancers in the future.
The above research results have been published in the academic journal Frontier Science.
(Originally titled “Hong Kong Baptist University invents nano-matrix to rapidly cultivate miniature brain-like structures to help treat Parkinson’s disease”)