Neural stem cells from people with Rett syndrome show early signs of dysfunction, according to unpublished research presented at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans. The results come from a comprehensive analysis of protein expression in neural progenitor cells, which mark the developmental stage between stem cells and neurons.
“What we’re trying to do is see if we can find the earliest molecular changes in patient-derived stem cells,” says senior investigator Anirvan Ghosh, professor of neurobiology at the University of California, San Diego, and head of discovery for the central nervous system at Swiss drugmaker Roche.
The researchers also found defects in the signaling of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), a protein that is in clinical trials as a treatment for Rett syndrome.
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