Somatic Cell-Fusion and/or Co-Culturing: A Mechanism for Cell Re-Programming Prior to Cell Therapy of Neurodegenerative Diseases

Author(s): Ashok Chakraborty, Anil Diwan

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) are the two most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases which generally start after 50-55 ages of life where the brain neural cell gets destroyed. Transplantation of the dopaminergic (DA-ergic) neuronal cells, though, could help the diseases but the most obstacle is the availability of a sufficient number of such cells for replacement therapy. Neural stem cells (NSCs) are able to produce DA-ergic neurons and also have the capacity to act as a useful vehicle for genetic and molecular therapies within the central system (CNS), however, the sustainability of slowly and senescence NSCs must be ensured through genetic manipulation both in vitro and in vivo. NSCs grow very occurs after a few passages. Here we'll discuss many options to modify the NSC cells for a better growth, and increased survival length, as well as their ability to control the release of dopamine within the neural synaptic cleft. Cell-Cell interactions in terms of co-culturing or cell fusion are commonly known to change the cells’ fate by genetic reprogramming, and thus discussed here for evaluation of their use in the transplantation process.