Scientists have been working for decades to harness the medical potential of nuclear reprogramming—the “switch in gene expression of one kind of cell to that of another unrelated cell type,” as described by Sir John B. Gurdon, 2012 Physiology or Medicine Nobelist and pioneer in the field. One of the most significant breakthroughs in recent years came in 2006, when the co-recipient of the 2012 Nobel, Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, succeeded in reverting mature body cells to their immature stem cell state by adding specific genes to the mature cells’ nuclei—a technique that could be used to replace damaged or diseased cells with healthy ones.
But it seems that while scientists have been slaving away to refine nuclear reprogramming techniques so that they can someday be used clinically, the bacterium that causes leprosy (Mycobacterium leprae) reprograms human cells out of habit. The notion that these bacteria can just do this seems, well, a bit irksome, in light of all the effort scientists have put into understanding nuclear reprogramming. But, then, the discovery is truly remarkable.
A light photomicrograph showing some of the histopathologic characteristics seen in a mycobacterial skin infection, such as that caused by Mycobacterium leprae. Credit: CDC/Dr. Roger Feldman
When the leprosy bacterium infects cells of the nervous system (specifically, Schwann cells, which are the cells that produce the insulating myelin sheath found around the long fibers of neurons), it reprograms the genes of those cells, causing them to return to a stem cell-like state and thereby redirecting their differentiation (maturation).
The reprogrammed cells were found to acquire several decidedly un-Schwann-cell-like traits. Among them were the tendency to migrate to skeletal and smooth muscle tissue and to release substances that attract immune cells known as macrophages, into which the cells deposit the microorganisms—behaviors apparently programmed into the cells by the bacteria. The recruitment and bacterial transfer process was further found to be associated with the accumulation of infected macrophages in granuloma-like structures, presumably similar to the hard nodules, or tubercles, that form as the body attempts to contain the infection. These areas of inflammation, however, serve as launchpads for the release of infected macrophages, a process that facilitates the spread of infection throughout the body.
The study, carried out using cell lines and mouse models, is the first to describe the ability of bacteria to reprogram adult cells. If the phenomenon is found to occur in humans with leprosy, too, scientists may be able to develop new and potentially highly effective treatments for the disease.
In the realm of basic research, the finding raises the question of whether other species of bacteria might possess similar abilities. Given the remarkable traits of these organisms, and their sheer abundance in the world, my bet is that there are others out there. And they might be reprogramming our cells as we speak.
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