Scientists have grown tiny, pea-sized brains in the lab to better understand how schizophrenia and bipolar disorder affect the brain.
These two mental health conditions are very hard to diagnose because they don’t show clear, measurable problems like other brain diseases do.
For example, Parkinson’s disease is linked to low dopamine levels, which doctors can test for. But schizophrenia and bipolar disorder don’t have such simple tests. This new research might help change that.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University used special stem cell techniques to create mini-brains—called brain organoids—from skin and blood samples of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and healthy people.
These brain organoids mimic some parts of real human brains. The team then studied how the neurons inside these mini-brains fired electrical signals, which is how real brain cells communicate.
Using machine learning, they analyzed the firing patterns and found clear differences between healthy organoids and those from people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
Their computer system could tell which mini-brain came from which patient with up to 83% accuracy. After applying gentle electrical stimulation to reveal more brain activity, the accuracy increased to 92%.
This is important because the way neurons misfire seems to be different in people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. The mini-brains showed unique electrical patterns that acted like fingerprints for each disorder. These patterns are called electrophysiology signatures.
The researchers hope that one day doctors can use this method to not only diagnose schizophrenia and bipolar disorder more accurately, but also test which drugs might work best for a specific patient.
Right now, most doctors rely on trial-and-error to find the right medicine. This process can take many months, and some patients don’t respond to common treatments like clozapine. But if doctors could test medications on a patient’s own mini-brain in a lab, they might be able to skip the guessing period and prescribe the best drug right away.
The mini-brains were grown to about three millimeters wide and contained several types of brain cells found in the prefrontal cortex—the area of the brain involved in complex thinking. They also had myelin, a protective layer that helps electrical signals travel faster between brain cells.
To study how well these mini-brains worked, the researchers placed them on microchips fitted with electrodes, like a tiny EEG machine, which helped them measure the electrical activity in real time. The signals provided important data on how brain networks form and function.
The study only included 12 patients, but the results are promising. The team is now working with other medical experts to collect more samples and test how different drug levels affect the brain organoids. If successful, this could lead to new tools for diagnosing and treating mental health disorders more precisely and quickly.
If you care about mental health, please read studies about Middle-aged women with no kids may have this mental issue and findings of scientists find a cause of mental illnesses induced by childhood abuse.
If you care about mental health, please read studies about Frequent painkiller use linked to mental health risks in these people and findings of Common depression drugs may offer new treatment for bipolar disorder.
The study is published in APL Bioengineering.
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