IPS Cells: Ethical Longevity
Have you ever had reservations about the ethics surrounding longevity, in particular the treatments used to extend the human healthspan? I definietly have so I decided to dive into a more ethical form of stem cell treatments that is equally as promising in the world of longevity. And, it involves some really cool stuff.
Let’s start off with a backstory:
If you need a refresher, stem cell rejuvenation is a type of therapy used to combat the effects of the natural aging process. A large amount of youthful stem cells are injected into patients via an IV. These cells then replace the existing ones, causing the body to work efficiently by healing itself and reducing inflammation.
Early on, the youthful stem cells used in these therapies were only available in the form of embryonic stem cells. These cells are pluripotent, meaning that they can grow into any type of tissue in the body (the most versatile because a baby’s cells are still learning what to do when they are conceived). However, the use of these cells came with several ethical issues and debates due to the fact that they were derived from embryos. Like the debates surrounding abortion, the use of embryonic stem cells poses similar questions. Therefore, it was not the best option for stem cell therapies. And, adult stem cells aren’t always an option due to their limited capabilites.
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) were thought to be the only source of pluripotent cells. That was until 2006 when scientist Shinya Yamanaka managed to convert differentiated adult cells into embryonic stem cells through a process called cellar reprogramming. A cell dosed with his reprogramming factors erased the marks on the epigenome. In the process, the cell lost its identity and the erroneous marks gained through aging, restoring itself to an embryonic state. The discovery opened the door to regenerative medicine and was the first step in combatting aging-related dieases such as Alzheimers, Parkinson's, and diabetes. Since then, many scientists have taken his discovery further to experiment with reprogramming cells in living organisms.
So, how does this reprogramming process work?
In order to turn adult cells back into embryonic-like stem cells, scientists take a person’s fibroblast and use 4 proteins to activate pluripotency within the cell. They insert these reprogramming factors — Sox2, Oct4, Klf4, and cMyc — into the cell via a virus. These transcription factors bind together to form an interconnected autoregulatory circuitry, triggering their own core promoter genes along with other pluripotency associated genes. By reactivating these genes in adult cells, the cells become pluripotent, meaning they reprogram back into an embryonic state. In the end, the induced pluripotent stem cells(IPS) are identical to embryonic stem cells.
What are the benefits?
- IPS cells are more ethically acceptable because they do not require the use of an embryo.
- IPS cells and embryonic stem cells are extremely similar. They can divide and produce copies of themselves indefinitely and can be used to derive any kind of specialized cell.
- IPS cells give researchers a way to create and study diseased cells that contain the same genetics as their patients. They are already in use for drug discovery.
- Personalized medicine avoids the need for a donor: IPS cells can be created from individual patients and then be transplanted back into those same patients. So, someone with Parkinson’s has the potential to be treated with stem cells derived from their own cells, eliminating the need for immunosuppressive drugs or transplants.
- IPS cells reduce the possibility of rejection of the transplanted cells by one’s own body because they were originally derived from the same body.
Downsides?
So, if IPS cells are identical to stem cells then there shouldn’t be any differences or downsides, right? Wrong.
- One major risk of using IPS cells is that the viruses used for generating the cells are associated with cancer. For example, overexpression of c-Myc, one of the genes used in the reprogramming process, can trigger the growth of cancerous tumors.
- Several studies suggest that IPS cells embryonic cells function differently. This is because the cells are never 100% reprogrammed. This is caused by incomplete reprogramming of the cells and the possible genetic changes acquired cells when they grow and multiply. But, researchers are still looking into the effects of these differences.
- Although appealing, the cost of develping affordable and effective treatments using IPS cells remains a challenge.
- More scientific research is also needed to understand just how the reprogramming process works inside of cells in order to overcome the downsides.
Looking Ahead:
There have been significant recent advances in the IPS cell industry. Originally, creating IPS cells involved transcription factors that caused permanent genetic changes inside of the cell, which led to the possibility of tumours forming. Now, scientists have developed methods for producing IPS cells without this genetic modification. These new techniques are an important step towards making specialized IPS cells could be safe for use in human patients. Further scientific research is now being done to understand how reprogramming fully works and how these cells can be produced to meet the high quality and safety requirements for clinical use in stem cell therapies. This same rejuvenation process can be applied to longevity, in which people could potentially receive stem cell treatments to revitalize their bodies back to a youthful state. So, in simple words, human longevity is on the horizon.
Key Takeaways
- IPS cells are created by reprogramming adult stem cells back into an embryonic state using four transcription factors. These cells are pluripotent and are essentially identical to embryonic stem cells.
- IPS cells are a more ethical alternative to embryonic stem cells and offer a possibility of personalized medicine. They also don’t require the need for donors in stem cell treatments, and therefore eliminate the possibility of rejection within the patient’s body.
- Although further research still needs to be done by scientists, IPS cells are a promising alternative to embryonic stem cells and are already being used in drug discovery.
- Although IPS cells are able to function like embryonic ones, they also come with downsides such as the formation of cancerous tumors.
- With new scientific developments, IPS cells are able to be created without the risks that come with using the viral transcription factors, although further research is currently being done to test the downsides of these as well.
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