Just a quick entry today – researchers have coaxed neural stem cells to differentiate into basal forebrain cholinergic neurons. These neurons are important in memory, and are affected in dementias like Alzheimer’s disease.

This represents a core technological aspect of using stem cells – the ability to make them turn into the kind of cells that are needed. It is not the only hurdle to stem cell therapies, however. Researchers also need to get the cells where they are needed, to get them to survive, and to not form cancers or tumors. In some cases it may also be necessary for the cells to form meaningful connections – this is especially true when replacing neurons in the brain.

So while this in an important advance, we are not there yet.

However – stem cells are useful beyond their direct therapeutic potential. The ability to make these specific kinds of neurons can be used in research, where having a ready supply of cells in a petri dish is highly useful. So this technique can accelerate research, even if it does not have a direct application itself.

Also, stem cells (even neuronal stem cells) can be therapeutically useful even if they are not able to make meaningful connections – network with surrounding neurons. Neurons, or more likely glial cells, that are genetically modified from stem cells can be implanted and used as drug delivery systems, or to alter the environment for native cells. This approach could potentially slow, stop, or compensate for various diseases. This application would also be much easier than getting the cells to network – because all they have to do is survive and metabolize, creating whatever substances are desired and dumping them into their surroundings.

The press release for this story also mentions unpublished research in which the scientists have been able to take adult skin cells and convert them into stem cells and then into neurons – skin cells to neurons.

This is certainly an exciting technology. We are just getting to the point where the earliest applications of this kind of stem cell therapy are within sight. But we are not quite there yet – so the public still needs to be aware that stem cell clinics promising to treat ALS or Alzheimer’s disease (not as part of an approved research protocol, but as a paid treatment) are fraudulent and should be avoided.