Cell powerhouses harnessed for healing
Studies have aroused excitation and skepticism. “This is certainly a very interesting area,” explains Koning Shen, a postdoctoral mitochondrial biologist at the University of California in Berkeley, and co-author of an overview of the mitochondria signaling roles in the annual review of cell and developmental biology 2022. She adds that the scaling of mitochondria Isolated organelles are major technical obstacles to make these treatments a broader reality. “It would be incredible if people arrive at this stage,” she says.
“I think there are a lot of people carefully thought out, but I think the big question is, what is the mechanism?” said Navdeep Chandel, researcher of mitochondria at the Northwestern University in Chicago. He doubts that the donor mitochondria repair or replace dysfunctional indigenous organelles, but says that it is possible that the donation of mitochondria triggers stress and immune signals which indirectly benefit from damaged tissues.
Whatever the mechanism, some animal studies suggest that mitochondria must be functional to confer their advantages. Lance Becker, president of emergency medicine at Northwell Health in New York, who studies the role of mitochondria in cardiac arrest, conducted a study comparing the fresh mitochondria, the mitochondria which had been frozen then thawed and a placebo to treat rats after the cardiac arrest. The 11 rats receiving fresh and operating mitochondria had a better brain function and a higher survival rate three days later than the 11 rats receiving a placebo; Free -functional frozen frozen mitochondria did not confer these advantages.
It will take more research on the mechanisms of mitochondrial therapy, improved mitochondria administration techniques, larger trials and a successful body of success before mitochondrial transplants can be approved by the FDA and widely used to treat ischemic-reperfusion lesions, according to researchers. The ultimate objective would be to create a kind of universal supply of stored mitochondria – a bank of mitochondria, which can be operated for transplantation by a wide variety of health care providers.
“We are so at first – we don’t know how it works,” says Becker. “But we know that it does something that is damn interesting.”
This article originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, a non -profit publication dedicated to making scientific knowledge accessible to all. Register for the newsletter of Knowable magazine.
