Simulating Direct Conversion of Adult Fibroblasts to Neurons

Abstract: Regenerative medicine offers a great prospect for curing diseases. Scientists are using direct conversion to reprogram fibroblasts, a kind of skin cell, into neurons in an attempt to cure Parkinson's disease. Even though successful conversion has been done with embryonic cells, a more practical method for future treatment would be to reprogram cells directly from the adult individual. It has however been proven much harder to obtain neurons from adult cells than from embryonic ones. In this study we present a model to improve the understanding of the conversion process. Different external perturbations to the cell are modeled in silico and compared with experimental observations in vitro. The stochastic nature of the processes inside the cell is taken into account to explain why only a fraction of cells get converted from fibroblasts to neurons, even though treated with the same external factors. This study helps improve the understanding of the conversion process and brings us closer to future experiments, where dopamine producing neurons missing in Parkinson patients are the aim of the conversion.