Professor Lee Jae-chul published his paper in Nature
- 약학대학
- Hit3547
- 2020-01-06
Identifying heart disease patients and presenting new treatment targets using stem cells and genetic scissors
Professor Lee Jae-chul's research team said, "We used induced pluripotent stem cells produced from patients to identify the origin of heart disease (extended myocardial disease) and present new targets for the development of the treatment."
The achievement, which was conducted in a joint study with Stanford University in the U.S., was published in the international journal Nature on July 18.
※ Paper: Activation of PDGF pathway links LMNA mutation to dilated cardiomyopathy
※ Lead Author: Professor Lee Jae-chul (1st author, corresponding author, SKKU), Joseph C. Wu (co-corresponding, Stanford University), Vittavat Termglinchan (1st co-author, Stanford University)
The research team obtained iPSCs from families of dilated cardiomyopathy and differentiated them into myocardial cells to determine the cause of the disease.
When genetic scissors were used to correct the mutation of a specific protein gene to normal, they observed normal return of the differentiated myocardial membrane and, on the contrary, confirmed that abnormalities in the nuclear membrane occurred when mutations were induced.
It was confirmed that abnormal forms of the nuclear membrane caused by gene mutation caused postgenetic changes in cells and eventually led to abnormal activation of certain signal delivery systems called platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF).
The findings suggested the target of the diesease and are expected to show the potential for a new treatment for heart disease by applying some of the existing drugs licensed by the U.S. FDA to the disease model.