Change of Pace
If money makes
the world go round, then technology determines the how fast it spins. Electronics have steadily become both more
reliable and more relied upon -- sometimes keeping us alive -- but will our
technology ever truly match the efficiency of our own biological engineering? Scientists and researchers have been working
towards a more natural substitute for the electronic pacemaker for years, and
it seems the solution has been lying in our genetic makeup all along.
An article from Medical News Today reported on researchers
at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, who successfully converted heart
muscle cells into “exact replicas of highly specialized pacemaker cells” with
the introduction of the Tbx18 gene. The induced cardiomyocytes took on all the
properties of sinoatrial node (SAN) or “pacemaker” cells, remaining virtually
indistinguishable even “after the effects of the Tbx18 gene had worn off.” Tbx18,
a gene known to be instrumental in the embryonic development of SAN cells, was
contained in a specially engineered virus and introduced both in vitro using
cell cultures and in vivo on guinea pigs.
“Although we
and others have created primitive biological pacemakers before, this study is
the first to show that a single gene can direct the conversion of heart muscle
cells to genuine pacemaker cells,” said Hee Cheol Cho, senior author of the
study and research scientist at the Heart Institute. He continued, discussing the properties of
the “ reprogrammed” cells, “The new cells generated electrical impulses
spontaneously and were indistinguishable from native pacemaker cells.”
While prior
experimentation has resulted in cells that could produce a “beat” without
support, the resulting cells were “closer to heart muscle cells than native
pacemaker cells.” Other studies have also
developed embryonic stem cells, but were considered too high a risk as the new
cells could theoretically prove cancerous. The Heart Institute study, a product
of decade’s worth of research, offers the potential for a safe, more organic
alternative to electronic pacemakers.
By
“inserting a single gene into heart muscle cells,” researchers skirted possible
problems, creating “pacemaker cells that closely resemble native ones and are
free from the risk of cancer.” As research progresses, professional speculation
predicts possible treatments ranging from inserting the Tbx18 gene directly into
the heart or by inducing cells in the laboratory and “transplanting them into a
patient’s heart.” The effects of either
method would potentially allow sufferers an option to avoid an electronic
pacemaker, which “can realistically only be done for patients healthy enough to
undergo surgery.”
Although the
Medical News Today article specified that any therapy or treatments “based on
this method remain a long way off” due to a need for further studies and testing
before human trials, one can’t help but look to the future. The field of genetics stands wide open for
exploration, and with genome sequencing becoming more precise and efficient every
day, geneticists are free to map out as much as possible. The prospect of using
our own DNA to directly regulate -- and sometimes fix -- our health is not just
influential for patients with erratic heartbeats, but for any number of
irregularities -- essentially allowing our bodies to heal themselves without the
risks of foreign procedures and unnatural solutions.