Newswise — It happened so that we tried to visit all major conferences in our country, where neurothematics was presented. This year we have visited “Optogenetics+” in the North capital, that took place at Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the conference Volga Neuroscience, that took place near Nizhny Novgorod and was organized by N. I. Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod. And ahead we have XXIV congress of Pavlov Russian Physiological Society! We have decided to tell about the most interesting reports that were presented on all these forums, not waiting for full printed versions of these researches. And we begin with very interesting method of genetic coding of iron nanoparticles right in cells for MRT-tomography.
Magnetic nanoparticles have recently become very popular in biomedicine. For example, magnetic nanoparticles of iron oxide can be used as a contrast for T2-regime in MRT. They are low-toxic and can be modified after making dispersoid for intravenous injection. There is another interesting way of using them for MRT: marking of cells inserted into an organism. However, this method has two shortages. On the first hand, cells are able to get rid of nanoparticles with the help of exocytosis. On the second hand, if inserted cells divide, the concentration of nanoparticles in them also lessens.
There is another interesting variant: to code them genetically right in the cell: protein ferritin is able to deposit up to 3 thousand of atoms of ferrum – and what else do you need to do MRT? However, nanoparticles, obtained this way, are amorphous and low-magnetic. Researchers from Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University at the conference “Optogenetics+” suggested an original way of “packing” ferrum into stem cells.
In order to do that you also have to code in cells bacterial proteins encapsulins. These specific proteins are able to store in themselves up to 30 thousand of ferrum atoms. Authors of the report spoke not only theoretically: with the help of lentivirus they obtained a cell line of mesenchymal stem cells, in which carrier protein of ferrum, ferment ferroxidase and bacterial encapsuling were expressed. Transmission electron microscopy showed that in cells really emerged nanoparticles of ferrum dioxide, and authors managed to demonstrate a principal ability of finding such genetically modified cells with the help of MRT after introducing them into the organism.
The material was prepared with the financial support of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science within the framework of the federal project “Popularization of science and technology”.
