Exosomes derived from stem cells have the potential to regenerate damaged brain cells, and could someday be used for to treat brain damage and neural degeneration diseases, researchers from the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) said yesterday.
Team leader Li Hua-jung (李華容), an associate investigator at the Institute of Cellular and System Medicine, told a news conference in Taipei that brain damage and neurodegenerative diseases often cause irreversible impairment for patients, and increase the risk of dementia.
More than 270,000 people in Taiwan are estimated to have dementia, which is a big challenge to the nation’s aging society, she said.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
Traumatic brain injury, unhealthy habits, hypertension, diabetes, long-term stress or mental illness are all potential risk factors for brain damage and neurodegenerative disease, she said.
Although clinical studies have suggested that stem cells have the potential to repair a damaged central nervous system, there are risks of complications from implantation, ectopic tissue formation and unwanted engraftment, Li said.
Her team spent seven years studying alternatives, and discovered that exosomes secreted by mesenchymal stem cells found in human bone marrow or fat tissues contain substances that can facilitate cranial nerve regeneration and brain functional recovery.
The exosomes are tiny vesicles that contain genetic information and biologically active substances, including proteins, RNA and other substances, and serve as mediators in cell-to-cell communication, she said.
As exosomes do not have a nucleus and will not grow after implantation, using them in therapy might reduce many of the safety concerns related to the use of living stem cells, she said.
After injecting such exosomes into brain-damaged mice, the team found that after a week the mice’s damaged nerve cells gradually grew synapses, and after a month the number of nerve cells in the damaged brain area was restored to about 60 percent, with the mice showing improvement in cognition, learning and memory.
The study showed that stem cell-derived exosomes have the potential to treat brain damage and neural degeneration diseases, and could possibly be developed for treating degenerative diseases, tissue or organ damage, cell deficiency, Parkinson’s disease or other diseases, Li said, adding that the team has patented their discovery in Taiwan and is applying for patents in the US, the UK and Japan.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat