Stem cell approaches in psychiatry--challenges and opportunities

Stem cell-based models and therapies: a key approach into schizophrenia treatment

Psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia can generate distress and disability along with heavy costs on individuals and health care systems. Different genetic and environmental factors play a pivotal role in the appearance of the mentioned disorders. Since the conventional treatment options for psychiatric disorders are suboptimal, investigators are trying to find novel strategies. Herein, stem cell therapies have been recommended as novel choices. In this context, the preclinical examination of stem cell-based therapies specifically using appropriate models can facilitate passing strong filters and serious examination to ensure proper quality and safety of them as a novel treatment approach. Animal models cannot be adequately helpful to follow pathophysiological features. Nowadays, stem cell-based models, particularly induced pluripotent stem cells reflected as suitable alternative models in this field. Accordingly, the importance of stem cell-based models, especially to experiment with the regenerative medicine outcomes for schizophrenia as one of the severe typing of psychiatric disorders, is addressed here.

Regenerative medicine: challenges and perspectives for successful therapies

Regenerative Medicine (RM) has the promise to revolutionize the treatment of many debilitating diseases for which the current therapies are inadequate. To realize the full potential of RM, a pragmatic approach needs to be taken by all stakeholders keeping in mind the lessons learnt from recombinant protein manufacturing, gene therapy trials, etc., to develop novel service delivery models for economic viability and regulatory processes in the absence of long-term data. In this chapter, we focus on the three main drivers of RM field and discuss the potential pitfalls and possible ways to mitigate them in order to move the field closer to clinical implementation.