MENTAL DISORDERS Part II
HOW TO STUDY THE BRAIN’S BIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS? WHAT IS THE DISEASE-IN-A-DISH MODELING OF BRAIN DISORDERS?
Neuropsychiatrists after the biological revolution realized that “Freudian teachings and psychoanalytic theories” failed to provide any reasonable help for the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses. For this reason, they practically abandoned this concept.
Since all mental processes are biological and depend on the biomolecular activities of the brain cells; mental illnesses could be due to biomolecular dysfunction of brain cells. Then only by studying live brain cells functions, in the mentally ill, the secret of mental illness could be found.
The only way to obtain live brain cells from the mentally ill would be to do a brain biopsy and grow these brain cells in cultures. However doing a brain biopsy is out of the question. The only way to obtain brain cells from the mentally ill is to use the method of the famous Japanese scientist Dr. Shinya Yamanaka’s fascinating discovery of “induced pluripotent stem cell” (IPSC) in 2006 from any adult cells.
For example, a skin biopsy could be obtained from a patient with mental disorder. These adult skin cells in culture media, through genetic engineering, different stimulation techniques and growth factors, could be reverted to grow backwards to their original stem cell life. Then these pluripotent stem cells, with variety of techniques, could be instructed to develop into any type of organ cells, including brain cells. This is the basic principle behind “disease-in-a-dish” modeling of mental disorders and obtaining brain cells from mentally ill.
These brain cells grown in petri dishes can provide the opportunities to study and do basic research on cellular and molecular levels of brain disorders. Even though the genetic causes of mental illnesses are easy to assess in these brain cells, they are immature cells. They can’t represent the biomolecular function, the complexity, the count, the specialization and the organizational structure of a mature human brain. That is why brain research with this method, so far, could only provide limited help.
The human brain is about 2.6lbs housed inside our skull. It is composed of 100 billion of nerve cells, called neurons and 10 times more glial cells which support and nourish neurons, and at least 100 trillion points of connections called “synapsis” among all these neurons. These synaptic connections, also called connectome, receive and send numerous signals to other neurons at a rate of 600/per second. This is how all and abstract brain functions are created.
In addition, half of the biological processes of our body are directly under the control of our brain.
No other organ in our body is this complex and creates mind, consciousness and all known psychological functions. The secrets of mental illnesses are hiding behind these complexities. Many more novel research methods are needed to understand and to deal with these complexities.
*Did you read Part I of my thoughts on Mental Disorders?
https://www.drmnurikalkay.com/home/2019/9/17/m-e-n-t-a-l-d-i-s-o-r-d-e-r-s?fbclid=IwAR2XQ6E8BgJnpjkhdoPyCNYMqGHPNn7NhKjBoIoFMcf7IIHJlYVtszTQGfU
