Science: Brazilians seek the effect of space on the brain – 12/22/2023 – Science

Whether in the first months of life or towards the end, time is a crucial factor in the development of the cerebral nervous system in vertebrate animals and especially in mammals.

It is during embryogenesis —intrauterine development phase— that tissues are formed that will later specialize in the organs of the nervous system, such as the brain and nerves.

It is also at this stage that environmental factors — sounds, visual stimuli and coexistence with other individuals — will help shape the baby’s brain and help him develop speech and interaction with his peers.

As life goes on, the death of neurons can have some consequences, such as symptoms related to loss of memory and motor skills.

For this reason, both phases are important in the study of conditions associated with neurodevelopment, such as autism, and neurodegeneration, such as Alzheimer’s, explains biologist Alysson Muotri, professor and coordinator of the Muotri Lab, at the University of California in San Diego, in the United States. .

“We know that the main causes of autism are genetic and appear before birth, in development. Organoids are fantastic models for modeling conditions that arise in the womb; now, for modeling diseases that appear late in development, at age 70, 80, I can’t”, explains the researcher.

Muotri is on the fourth attempt of an experiment that began in 2019: sending samples of organoids (mini-organs that mimic the three-dimensional characteristics of a real organ, but are made in the laboratory) into space. The objective is to study the effects of microgravity on the appearance of conditions linked to development.

The logic would be as follows: cellular aging pauses in space due to the absence of the force of gravity. But when the models return to Earth, they go through an accelerated growth process.

“The literature shows that cells in space stop aging, they remain in a dormant state. If you remove gravity, the enzymes that cause aging stop working, but, when they return, the aging process will be accelerated, even if a month has passed,” he says.

The mechanism by which the “pause” in aging occurs is still being investigated, but it must have something to do with telomeres, the “ends” of chromosomes that protect cells from maturation. As cells divide and replicate, telomeres shorten, which ultimately leads to cellular aging.

“These samples will bring a lot of new information, but I think the main thing is the data on aging”, says biomedical doctor, post-doctoral fellow and project coordinator at Muotri Lab, Livia Luz. “We have already seen that there is an action of microgravity and the elements of the genome known as retrotransposable [com funções como o reparo do DNA]and now we want to see if there really is this acceleration in the aging of neuronal cells when they spend a period exposed to cosmic radiation.”

Luiza Coelho, a biologist and doctoral candidate in the same laboratory, also participates directly in the experiment with the cerebral organoids.

After ten months of developing, together with Space Tango engineers, a module capable of evaluating samples on the International Space Station (ISS), and more than 30 days of waiting, they loaded the mini-brain samples into capsules launched on the company’s rocket. SpaceX on November 9th and should arrive at the NASA base, the American space agency, in Florida, within a few days.

The landing, scheduled for last Thursday (14), was postponed three times due to weather conditions and is now scheduled for this Friday (22). The delay is worrying, but it should not affect the research, according to Luz.

“The mini-brains will be a little older than we initially anticipated, but that’s no problem for now, because the organoids that are in the laboratory as controls will spend the same number of days in experimentation,” he says.

In the capsule sent into space, robots developed by the team with the company Space Tango collect information, which occurs daily — CO control_two, temperature, water, oxygenation, photos and other pertinent information. “It’s almost a complete diary, we monitor them, we receive the data to know if everything is going well”, she says.

It reminds me a little of the experience of taking care of a virtual pet – the Tamagotchis, from the 1990s. “I need to know exactly how reliable the robot is in giving me the parameters of the capsule in space to know if the organoids are okay. And there is also a The engineers’ concern was for it to be light, simple and efficient equipment. That’s why we carried out several tests and went through several models before reaching the final result.”

Space science, in fact, was not something foreseen in the biomedical career. Graduated in biomedical sciences from Unesp (Universidade Estadual Paulista), Botucatu campus, she also completed her doctorate with Muotri with a research project that sought to understand the mechanisms linked to a rare genetic disease using organoids.

The frequency with which Muotri receives young Brazilian researchers seeking guidance in his laboratory in California gives the impression of being a true “Brazilian republic” – around 80% of the group’s 39 members are Brazilian. The interest, obviously influenced by the language, is also caused by the broad line of research and the encouragement that the researcher gives to the areas of basic science.

“Whatever you come to him and say ‘I had this idea’ and he thinks it’s something worth investigating, he’s cool with it. He never thinks something is too out of the box, and that’s why his projects are very innovative”, he says.