What is Stem Cell: January 2008

Thursday, January 31, 2008

[StemCells] Vaccine Induced Demyelination

Vaccine Induced Demyelination

http://www.healing- arts.org/ children/ vaccines/ vaccines- demyelination. htm

Myelination is an essential part of human brain development. Nerves can only conduct pulses of energy efficiently if covered by myelin. Like insulation on an electric wire, the fatty coating of myelin keeps the pulses confined and maintains the integrity of the electrical signal so that it has a high signal-to-noise ratio. When the insulation on a wire is damaged or destroyed, the flow of electrical current may be interrupted and a short-circuit occurs.

Oligodendrocyte cells give white matter its color by manufacturing myelin. If myelin falls into disrepair, nerve axons cease to function, even though they themselves aren't damaged. Protecting oligodendrocytes after brain or spinal cord injury might keep nerve cells intact.

At birth, relatively few pathways have myelin insulation. Myelination in the human brain continues from before birth until at least 20 years of age. Up until the age of 10 or so, vast areas of the cortex are not yet myelinated. Up to the age of 20, large areas of the frontal lobes are not yet myelinated. 1

Myelination begins in the developmentally oldest parts of the brain, like the brain stem, moving to the areas of the nervous system that have developed more recently, like the prefrontal lobe and cortex. Myelin spreads throughout the nervous system in stages, which vary slightly in each individual. Impairment of myelination can alter neural communication without necessarily causing severe CNS (central nervous system) damage.

The prefrontal portions of the cerebrum have a profound influence on human behavior. 2 If an individual is injected with vaccines,most of which have adjuvants like mercury and aluminum compounds, as well as foreign proteins (some from other species in which the vaccines were grown) and biological organisms, unprotected nerves may be impacted. The argument for a role of vaccines in the development of autistic disorders hinges on these biological effects upon nerves, damaging them in a way that influences behavior and learning patterns.

The argument for adjuvants evoking an auto-immune response does not hinge on any inherent neuro-toxicity of these compounds, but on the initiation of an allergic response.

The model by which adjuvants initiate an immune response is that of Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis (EAE). To date, EAE is recognized as the best available animal model of several degenerative human diseases, like multiple sclerosis and post-vaccinal encephalopathies. EAE 3 is generally thought to be an autoimmune response to myelin basic protein ( MBP ). Oddly, MBP can also suppress EAE, and many observations suggest that an independent immune response to so-called "adjuvant" material is also necessary to EAE induction. Of course, this is why adjuvants are used in vaccines, to dramatically increase the likelihood of an immune response to the administered biological material.

Thus, EAE may be a result of a pair of interactive immune responses, one against MBP , and one against the adjuvant. If so, the adjuvant should, like MBP , suppress EAE. Root-Bernstein, et al. (1986) presented data from experiments on strain 13 guinea pigs demonstrating EAE suppression by muramyl dipeptide, an active component of complete Freund's adjuvant. In the past, adjuvants have only been classified as immunopotentiators, not immunosuppressants. Apparently, adjuvants are both. This study strengthens the argument that adjuvants may be crucial to initiating an auto-immune response leading to post-vaccine neurological symptoms.

[ Return to "Quick-Index" of Vaccines ]

References

1. Edwards KM, Meade BD, Decker MD, et al. Comparison of 13 acellular pertussis vaccines: overview and serologic responses. Pediatrics 1995;96:548- 57.

2. Orenstein WA , Brugliera PD. Preface: Immunization in medical education. Am J Prev Med 1994; 10(suppl):v- viii.

3. Root-Bernstein RS; Yurochko F; Westall FC. Clinical suppression of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis by muramyl dipeptide "adjuvant". Brain Res Bull, 17: 4, 1986 Oct, 473-6.

Also:

Auto-Immunity, Vaccines and Autism

http://www.healing- arts.org/ children/ vaccines/ vaccines- auto-immunity. htm#auto

Auto-Immunity, Vaccines and Autism

http://www.healing- arts.org/ children/ vaccines/ vaccines- auto-immunity. htm#auto

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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

[StemCells] Trials begin for fat scs / regen. heart attack study

First Patients Treated in Cytori's Stem & Regenerative Cell Heart
Attack Study
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cytori Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CYTX)
enrolled the first two patients in a clinical trial using adipose-
derived stem and regenerative cells in the treatment of heart attack.
In this trial, patients' cells are made available using Cytori's
Celution™ System, a real-time cell processing device. One patient has
been enrolled in each trial center, Hospital Universitario Gregorio
Marañón in Madrid, Spain, and Thoraxcenter, Erasmus Medical Center in
Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Fat, known medically as adipose tissue, is one of the body's richest
known sources of regenerative cells. Adipose-derived regenerative
cells include adult stem cells in addition to other important cell
types that have been shown to increase blood flow in and around
damaged and oxygen deprived tissues. As a result, these cells hold
exciting potential to revolutionize the treatment of heart disease,
which affects millions of patients worldwide each year.

"Time is of the essence in the treatment of patients with heart
attacks," said Prof. PW. Serruys, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator
for the trial and Head of the Department of Interventional Cardiology
at the Thoraxcenter, Erasmus Medical Center. "The Celution™ System
makes adipose-derived regenerative cells available in real-time and
enables early treatment. For this reason, adipose-derived
regenerative cells processed by the Celution™ System could play a
critical role in limiting or reversing heart damage caused by a heart
attack."

"A major challenge in cardiovascular cell therapy is having a
meaningful number of stem and regenerative cells," said Francisco J.
Fernández-Avilés, Chief of Department of Cardiology at Hospital
Universitario Gregorio Marañón and an investigator for this APOLLO
trial. "To date, we have treated a number of patients with chronic
ischemia in Cytori's PRECISE trial, and we are pleased that the
Celution™ device has enabled us to administer a meaningful dose of
their own cells in real-time."

The APOLLO trial is a 48-patient, randomized, placebo-controlled,
dose escalation, safety and feasibility multi-center study. A dose of
adipose-derived regenerative cells, or a placebo, will be delivered
through an intracoronary catheter within 36 hours following the onset
of a heart attack. The trial will involve four groups of 12 patients
each. In each group, nine patients will receive cells and three will
receive the placebo control. Cytori is the sole sponsor of the APOLLO
clinical trial.

"The Celution™ System is unique in its ability to potentially address
acute and chronic heart conditions using a patient's own cells," said
Alex Milstein, M.D., Vice President, Clinical Development, Cytori
Therapeutics. "Cytori's comprehensive clinical development program
for the Celution system addresses chronic ischemic heart disease as
well as in acute heart attack. The initiation of the APOLLO trial is
an important milestone that has a potential of bringing innovative
treatment options for patients with acute heart attack."

Cytori Therapeutics

Cytori Therapeutics' (NASDAQ:CYTX) goal is to be the global leader in
regenerative medicine. The company is dedicated to providing patients
with new options for reconstructive surgery, developing treatments
for cardiovascular disease, and banking patients' adult stem and
regenerative cells. To reach its goal, Cytori is developing its
innovative Celution™ System to separate and concentrate a patient's
own adult stem and regenerative cells from adipose (fat) tissue for
these cells to be delivered back to the patient during the same
surgical procedure. In 2008, the Celution™ System is being introduced
in Europe into the reconstructive surgery market and launched in
Japan for cryopreserving a patient's own stem and regenerative cells.
Clinical trials are ongoing or planned in cardiovascular disease,
spinal disc degeneration, gastrointestinal disorders, and other unmet
medical needs. www.cytoritx.com

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements regarding
events, trends and prospects of our business, which may affect our
future operating results and financial position. Such statements are
subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual
results and financial position to differ materially. Some of these
risks and uncertainties include our history of operating losses, the
need for further financing, regulatory uncertainties, dependence on
performance of third parties, and other risks and uncertainties
described (under the heading "Risk Factors") in Cytori Therapeutics'
Form 10-K annual report for the year ended December 31, 2006. We
assume no responsibility to update or revise any forward-looking
statements to reflect events, trends or circumstances after the date
they are made.

Contacts
Cytori Therapeutics
Tom Baker, 858-875-5258
tbaker@cytoritx.com

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?
ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080130005642&newsLang=en

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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:

Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/

Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123

The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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[StemCells] Newborns Learning/Memory & SCs

Newborn brain cells modulate learning and memory
La Jolla, CA — Boosted by physical and mental exercise, neural stem
cells continue to sprout new neurons throughout life, but the exact
function of these newcomers has been the topic of much debate.
Removing a genetic master switch that maintains neural stem cells in
their proliferative state finally gave researchers at the Salk
Institute for Biological Studies some definitive answers.

Without adult neurogenesis — literally the "birth of neurons" —
genetically engineered mice turned into "slow learners" that had
trouble navigating a water maze and remembering the location of a
submerged platform, the Salk investigators report in the Jan. 30
Advance Online Edition of Nature. The findings suggest that, one day,
researchers might be able to stimulate neurogenesis with orally
active drugs to influence memory function, the researchers say.

"Our study directly establishes that neurogenesis plays an important
role in a defined process, the acquisition and storage of spatial
memory," says Howard Hughes Medical Investigator Ronald M. Evans,
Ph.D., a professor in the Salk Institute's Gene Expression
Laboratory, who, together with his Salk colleague Fred H. Gage,
Ph.D., a professor in the Laboratory of Genetics, directed the study.

"This finding puts us in a new and important position to exploit the
potential of stem cell-based therapies to improve brain function in
neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's that are accompanied
by a loss of memory," Evans says.

In an earlier collaboration, Evans and Gage had discovered that TLX,
a so-called orphan receptor is crucial for maintaining adult neural
stem cell in an undifferentiated, proliferative state. Orphan
receptors are structurally related to the well-known hormone
receptors that mediate steroid and thyroid signaling. In contrast, a
TLX regulatory molecule has not yet been identified.

Now, the Salk team wanted to learn more about TLX's biology and
function. However, the global deletion of TLX leads to a variety of
developmental problems, so postdoctoral fellow and first author Chun-
Li Zhang, Ph.D., had to devise a strategy that would allow them to
control when to shut off the gene coding for TLX in neural stem cells
kept in Petri dishes as well as in live animals. When he cultured
mouse neural stem cells without the gene encoding TLX, the
proliferation rate of these cells plummeted and the activity of
hundreds of genes changed.

Explains Zhang, "This experiment confirmed that TLX specifically
induces the genetic program necessary for maintaining neural stem
cells in their stem-like state," handing the Salk researchers the
perfect tool to track the contribution of newborn neurons to normal
brain function — a question Gage is particularly interested in.

"In the past, methods to knock out neurogenesis, such as radiation
and mitotic inhibitors that block all cell division have been rather
crude," he says. "So, maybe not surprisingly the literature is
riddled with contradictory results."

Adult neural stem cells continually generate new brain cells or
neurons in two small areas of mammalian brains: the olfactory bulb,
which processes odors, and the central part of the hippocampus, which
is involved in the formation of memories and learning. Some of these
newborn cells die shortly after they are born but many of them become
functionally integrated into the surrounding brain tissue. Whether
they live or die is regulated by the animals' experience.

Combining mouse genetics and gene transfer techniques, Zhang
genetically engineered mice that allowed him to specifically delete
TLX in the brains of adult mice and thus shut down neurogenesis. He
then put the mice through a battery of standard behavioral tests.

The mice passed with flying colors in all but one test: the Morris
water maze, a common behavioral test in which mice have to rely on
visual cues on the surrounding walls to find and remember the
location of a submerged platform hidden in a pool of milky water.
This task draws on many cognitive abilities, including analytical
skills, learning and memory, and the ability to form strategies.

The more challenging Zhang made the test, the more difficult the
altered mice found it to navigate the maze and remember the location
of the platform. "The mice showed both learning and memory deficits,"
he says. "It's not that they didn't learn, they were just slower at
learning the task and didn't retain as much as their normal
counterparts," observes Zhang.

"Whatever these new neurons are doing it is not controlling whether
or not these animals learn," explains Gage. "But these new cells are
regulating the efficiency and the strategy that they using to solve
the problem."

###
Research assistant Yuhua Zou, M.Sc., and postdoctoral researcher
Weimin He, Ph.D., both in the Gene Expression laboratory at the Salk
also contributed to the study.

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, is
an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to fundamental
discoveries in the life sciences, the improvement of human health and
the training of future generations of researchers. Jonas Salk, M.D.,
whose polio vaccine all but eradicated the crippling disease
poliomyelitis in 1955, opened the Institute in 1965 with a gift of
land from the City of San Diego and the financial support of the
March of Dimes.

Public release date: 30-Jan-2008
Contact: Gina Kirchweger
kirchweger@salk.edu
858-453-4100 x1340
Salk Institute

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/si-nbc013008.php

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[StemCells] Impregnating Titanium Implants w/SC homing factors

Porous structures help boost integration of host tissue with
implants, study finds
NEW YORK – Results published today in FASEB (the journal of the
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) by
researchers at Columbia University, including Jeremy Mao of the
Columbia College of Dental Medicine, demonstrate a novel way of using
porous structures as a drug-delivery vehicle that can help boost the
integration of host tissue with surgically implanted titanium.

Instead of being acted upon by the body as an impenetrable foreign
object, the synthetic bone replacement – currently being tested in
rabbits – features a porous material that allows for the delivery
of "microencapsulated bioactive cues" that speed up the growth of
host tissue at the site and allow for the growth of new bone.

A critical finding is that the drug dose needed for host tissue
integration by this controlled-release approach is about 1/10 of that
by the traditional technique of simple adsorption of the growth
factor.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/cumc-psh013008.php
The approach could bring to orthopedics and dentistry a treatment
that has wrought much interest and success in the field of cardiology
with the development of drug-eluting stents, which take what is
ordinarily an inert tube, and infuse it with drugs to make the
placement of what is essentially a man-made, foreign object more
compatible with the patient's body, and at the same time, actively
promoting healing of injured tissue.

After just four weeks, the porous implants that Mao and his team are
using showed a 96 percent increase in bone-to-implant contact and a
50 percent increase in the growth of new bone over placebos.

How were such results achieved?

Since stem cells play a vital role in the growth of new bone, Mao and
his team have focused on impregnating the titanium implants with a
factor that "homes" the bodies' own regenerating cells to the
potential growth site to create and build on a platform for new bone.

The new approach may in the future obviate the need to harvest bone
from a non-injured site in the body for grafting into the site of
injury, as commonly performed now. This strategy, although often
effective, creates additional wounds. The work of Mao and his team
suggests that it should be possible to harnesses the body's natural
tissue regeneration capacity to recruit the right cells to the site
where new bone tissue is needed. Implants that naturally attract the
mesenchymal stem cells that can readily differentiate into bone, fat,
cartilage and other types of cells could be the way of the future,
Mao says. "In comparison with donor site morbidity and pain in
association with autologous tissue grafting, synthetic materials have
the advantage of ready and endless supply without any sacrifice of
donor tissue," he says.

The approach also overcomes a practical obstacle confronting many
orthopedic surgeons.

"This is a hybrid approach releasing biological cues from existing
orthopedic and dental implants to recruit the body's own stem cells.
It's unrealistic, at least from what we know now, to build a cell
culture room next to every operating room," Mao added. "Using these
types of porous implants doesn't require physicians to deliver stems
cells so much as it allows the patient's body to send its own cells
to the right place."

###
The research was supported by U.S. National Institutes of Health
grants DE015391 and EB02332 to Mao and his colleagues. Mao, D.D.S.,
Ph.D. is a dentist, a tissue engineer and professor at the Columbia
University College of Dental Medicine.

If you would like to interview Dr. Mao about this and other research
or would like a copy of the paper for further reading, please contact
Alex Lyda at (212) 305-0820.

Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership
in pre-clinical and clinical research, in medical and health sciences
education, and in patient care. The medical center trains future
leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians,
scientists, nurses, dentists, and public health professionals at the
College of Physicians & Surgeons, the College of Dental Medicine, the
School of Nursing, the Mailman School of Public Health, the
biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,
and allied research centers and institutions. www.cumc.columbia.edu

Public release date: 30-Jan-2008
Contact: Alex Lyda
mal2133@columbia.edu
212-305-0820
Columbia University Medical Center

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[StemCells] ASCs for eye repair (Scientific American)

A Visionary Approach Using Stem Cells to Repair Eye Damage
New eye research center in India aims to fix visual impairments with
the help of stem cells
By Larry Greenemeier

STEM CELL RESEARCH at the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad,
India, involves the generation of reparative tissue in the
laboratory, which is used to replace damaged or diseased tissue.
Courtesy of the LV Prasad Eye Institute
A new vision research center opening in India today becomes the
latest in a handful of facilities dedicated to exploring the
potential of adult eye stem cells to repair vision damage. The
Champalimaud Center for Translation Eye Research (C-TRACER), part of
the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India, will continue
research begun by LV Prasad scientists, who use eye stem cells from
living adults to grow new cells that are then implanted into damaged

The center's goal is to restore vision to some portion of the 65
million people worldwide—about 1 percent of the world population—
considered to be legally blind, which the National Federation of the
Blind defines as a central visual acuity of 20 / 200 or less in the
stronger eye, even when aided by a corrective lens. Especially in
developing countries in Africa and Asia, "most of these people are
needlessly blind," says D. Balasubramanian, research director for
both LV Prasad and the new facility.

Some of these people have vision problems caused by currently
untreatable diseases, he notes, but others simply because they cannot
afford or do not have access to relatively simple fixes such as
surgery to remove cataracts (clouding of eye lenses).

Balasubramanian says the research center, which is being funded by
the philanthropic Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon, will be critical
to improving eye care in his country where an estimated 15 million
people suffer from eyesight woes, many of them genetic. "Hundreds of
millions of Indians marry within their community," says
Balasubramanian, a former director of the Center for Cellular and
Molecular Biology and dean of the University of Hyderabad. "So there
is a lot of inherited blindness that is gene-derived. Almost one in
every 4,000 live births in India [for example] seems to produce
congenital glaucoma."

Among the disorders that Balasubramanian has targeted is retinitis
pigmentosa, a group of inherited diseases that cause degeneration of
the retina (in the back of the eye where millions of photoreceptors
capture light rays that the brain turns into images). "There is no
cure for this and it is certainly a genetic disease," he says. People
with retinitis pigmentosa experience a gradual decline in their
vision because the eye's photoreceptor cells slowly die off.

C-TRACER researchers are trained to think in terms of the full cycle
of developing treatments—from laboratory to operating room to
clinical rehabilitation, or, as Balasubramanian says, "from bench to
bedside." One example of this research is the practice of using stem
cells taken from a healthy eye's limbus, the area around the cornea
where stem cells are stored, to create a layer of healthy cells to
replace damaged ones in the cornea, the transparent, dome-shaped
layer of cells covering the front of the eye. Ophthalmologists do
this by creating a patch of cells from a surgically removed slice of
the limbus and stitching it to the damaged cornea. Similar limbal
stem cell transplant work has been done by physicians at the
University of Melbourne's Center for Eye Research Australia and the
Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery in Fitzroy, Australia.

Although the stem cell approach was not invented at LV Prasad, the
institute has treated about 500 patients with a success rate of
nearly 75 percent, Balasubramanian says. C-TRACER and LV Prasad has
also tuned its work to pay particular attention to the genetic
conditions that lead to visual impairment. C-TRACER will open with a
staff of five scientists, 22 graduate students and six clinical
researchers. The facility occupies 16,000 square feet (1,485 square
meters) on the LV Prasad institute's fifth floor, but plans are to
expand to 25,000 square feet (2,320 square meters) by 2009.

Champalimaud-funded C-TRACER in an effort to prevent and treat vision-
related disease and illness in Portugal, Portuguese-speaking
countries and throughout the developing world. The four-year-old
foundation also offers a $1.48 million (1 million euro) Champalimaud
Vision Award annually to researchers who have provided "major
breakthroughs in the understanding of vision or in the alleviation of
visual impairment and blindness," says foundation executive committee
member João Botelho.

This year, the foundation will further its philanthropic medical
research support by breaking ground on the Champalimaud Center for
the Unknown, a Lisbon research center slated to open in October 2010
and serve as the foundation's international headquarters.

In addition to the funds that LV Prasad received from Champalimaud to
create C-TRACER, the institute will also receive $1 million in
funding over the next five years from the Indian Ministry of Science
& Technology's Department of Biotechnology.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=stem-cell-eye-repair

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[StemCells] Clinical Trials: Stroke & CP

Stem Cell Therapy Studies For Stroke, Cerebral Palsy Prepare For
Clinical Trials
ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2008) — Finding answers about optimal dosage
and timing for stem cell therapy in adults with strokes and newborns
with ischemic injuries is a goal of two new federally funded studies.

The answers are critical before clinical trials can begin, says Dr.
Cesario V. Borlongan, neuroscientist at the Medical College of
Georgia and Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He is
principal investigator on the National Institutes of Health grants
totaling $6 million that also will explore long-term benefits of cell
therapy.

If these additional laboratory studies replicate the promising
results of the pilot studies, which indicate about a 25 percent
improvement in recovery over controls, MCG and VA researchers hope to
begin clinical trials in new ischemic injuries in adults and children
within two years.

"We are looking at different procedures that we can adopt from the
laboratory for the clinic," Dr. Borlongan says. "We have at least 10
years of basic research that clearly shows that stem cells have the
potential to be a new therapy for adult stroke."

"This is a whole new paradigm, a totally different way of targeting
disease," says Dr. David Hess, chair of the MCG Department of
Neurology and co-investigator. Clot buster tPA is the only drug that
is FDA-approved to treat ischemic strokes; an often-delayed diagnosis
and a three-hour treatment window mean only a small percentage of
patients get it.

Drs. Hess and Borlongan say cell therapy could eventually be used
alone or in conjunction with tPA, if recovery is not sufficient.
Pilot studies indicate cell therapy can be of benefit up to seven
days after a stroke but that two days out is the optimal time of
delivery. "This will allow us to enroll patients who get tPA, give us
plenty of time to assess them and prepare the cells," says Dr.
Borlongan.

Their success in an adult stroke model led the researchers to explore
the potential for helping babies recover from hypoxic ischemia, a
loss of blood and oxygen that can result in cerebral palsy, broadly
defined as a brain injury that occurs before or during birth.

Ischemic brain injury accounts for about 10 percent of cerebral palsy
and about 80 percent of strokes.

They found young, developing brains more adaptable to injury and
better able to recover even without intervention. "Very young
patients may be the biggest beneficiaries of cell therapy," says Dr.
James E. Carroll, chief of the MCG Section of Pediatric Neurology and
a co-investigator. "Our hope is that cell therapy will speed
recoveries of babies who have experienced a brain injury at birth,"
he says. "You want to increase the spontaneous recovery, enhance the
neurogenesis that is already occurring in the brains of these young
patients," adds Dr. Borlongan.

They have models for mild, moderate and severe ischemic injury to
reflect damage that can result from scenarios such as an umbilical
cord wrapped around the fetus' neck or placental abruption, which
disrupts the fetus' source of oxygen and nutrients. Researchers
expect that cell therapy likely would be used as an adjunct to
hypothermia, a new FDA-approved treatment for hypoxic ischemic injury
in babies that appears to improve outcomes by reducing metabolic
rates, including oxygen requirements, in the hours following an
injury.

Given intravenously, the adult, bone marrow-derived stem cell line,
developed by Cleveland-based biopharmaceutical company Athersys,
Inc., seems to hone in on the area of injury where it works multiple
ways. While only a small fraction of the cells actually survive and
mature into neurons – more survive in the baby model than the adult –
trophic factors they secrete significantly enhance recovery of brain
cells injured by lack of oxygen and help grow new blood vessels.

Nothing seems to help the core of the ischemic area in stroke, which
is formed within hours of injury; even when cells are placed directly
into the core, they do not survive in the area, which is devoid of a
blood supply, Dr. Borlongan says. However the cells and their trophic
factors can dramatically reduce the penumbra, the area of damaged
cells surrounding the core, an area that can continue to grow several
days after injury.

Interestingly, these undifferentiated stem cells don't seem to
interest the immune system, so immunosuppression is not required as
it typically is for organ transplants, even when a human cell is
placed in a rat, Dr. Borlongan says. Also, pilot studies that have
followed rat models for two months after transplant – a long time
considering the average rat lives two years – haven't found any signs
of tumor formation, which is a concern with stem cells. The new
studies will follow transplants for six months, to ensure that
efficacy and safety hold up, Dr. Borlongan says.

They'll explore dose ranges between 400,000 and 40 million cells. "We
want to see, if we implant more cells, will it be more beneficial?"
says Dr. Borlongan. "It may not be the more the merrier."

In preparation for clinical trials, the researchers already have
clinical advisory groups for the studies and have begun submitting
grant proposals and talking with the FDA. Smaller studies in non-
human primate models may also be required before clinical trials
begin, Dr. Borlongan says.

Athersys scientists Robert J. Deans and Robert W. Mays are co-
investigators on the studies.

Adapted from materials provided by Medical College of Georgia.

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MLA Medical College of Georgia (2008, January 30). Stem Cell Therapy
Studies For Stroke, Cerebral Palsy Prepare For Clinical Trials.
ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 30, 2008, from
http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/01/080129160714.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080129160714.htm

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[StemCells] Kidney Cancer Drug for AML

Kidney Cancer Drug Attacks A Major Type Of Acute Myeloid Leukemia
ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2008) — A drug used to treat kidney cancer
also targets a genetic mutation active in about one third of patients
with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the most common and lethal form of
adult leukemia, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson
Cancer Center report in the Jan. 29 edition of the Journal of the
National Cancer Institute.

In a Phase I clinical trial, the drug sorafenib reduced the median
percentage of leukemia cells circulating in the blood from 81 percent
to 7.5 percent and in the bone marrow from 75.5 percent to 34 percent
among AML patients whose leukemia includes the FLT3-ITD mutation. Two
patients had circulating leukemia cells, or blasts, drop to zero.

"AML patients with this mutation have a particularly poor prognosis,
so this highly targeted drug appears to be a significant step forward
in leukemia therapy," says senior author Michael Andreeff, M.D.,
Ph.D., professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Stem Cell
Transplantation and Cellular Therapy and Department of Leukemia.

The JNCI paper reports the drug's effect in lab experiments, a mouse
model of the disease, and in a Phase I study of 16 patients with
relapsed or resistant AML known to have the FLT3-ITD mutation.

There have been no major side effects in the clinical trial to date,
so no maximum tolerated dose has been reached, Andreeff notes. The
drug has little effect on cells with normal versions of the gene and
does not interfere with normal blood cell formation.

A Phase I/Phase II clinical trial for AML is open at M. D. Anderson
that combines sorafenib with the standard of care chemotherapy
combination for AML, idarubicin and cytosine arabinoside. Presently,
the trial is open for relapsed patients and those newly diagnosed
with high-risk disease, says study co-author Jorge Cortes, M.D.,
professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Leukemia. As safety and
dose escalation research progress, sorafenib will be made available
to other patients and assume a role in frontline therapy.

About 14,000 new cases of AML are diagnosed annually in the United
States and the disease kills about 9,000 people each year. AML is
characterized by swift proliferation of immature white blood cells in
the blood and bone marrow that crowds out normal cells, leaving
patients exposed to infection, severe anemia, and bleeding.

While major progress has been made treating some forms of leukemia
and lymphoma, acute myeloid leukemia has seen less improvement in
recent years. Andreeff says that's because AML exploits multiple
molecular pathways and that these pathways differ from one type of
AML to the next.

Andreeff and colleagues have shown that molecular pathways subverted
and used by AML collude with each other, so when one pathway is
blocked, the others redouble their efforts to fuel the disease.

"Here we have a great response against an important mutation, but
sorafenib alone will not cure patients," Andreeff notes. Combination
therapy will be required. Andreeff and colleagues are planning to
examine other sorafenib combinations against FLT3-mutant disease.

After in vitro tests showed that sorafenib inhibited the growth of
FLT3 mutant leukemia cell colonies, the research team tested the
medication in a mouse model of the disease. Sorafenib-treated mice
had a median survival of 36.5 days compared with 20.5 days in
untreated mice. Bioluminescence imaging showed widespread cancer
growth in untreated mice and barely detectable disease in those that
had received the drug.

Sorafenib, known commercially as Nexavar® and co-developed by Bayer
AG and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, already is approved for advanced renal
cell carcinoma and inoperable liver cancer by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. It is being tested against other solid tumors.

The drug targets both tumor cell growth and angiogenesis - new blood
vessels woven by cancer to sustain itself - by targeting two classes
of kinases, which are enzymes that affect proteins by attaching
phosphate groups to them.

Sorafenib's antileukemia effects appear to be superior to early
results of new therapies under development that more narrowly target
the FLT3 gene. Andreeff says the drug's ability to hit multiple
kinases probably accounts for this, but the exact molecular
mechanisms involved require further study.

Co-authors with Andreeff and Cortes are lead author Weiguo Zhang,
M.D., Ph.D., who conducted most of the project's laboratory research,
Marina Konopleva, M.D., Ph.D., Yue-xi Shi, Teresa McQueen, Xiaoyang
Ling, Ph.D., all of the department of Stem Cell Transplantation and
Cellular Therapy; David Harris, Zeev Estrov, M.D., and Alfonso
Quintas-Cardama, M.D. all of the Department of Leukemia; and David
Small, M.D. of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Research was funded by grants from the National Cancer Institute, a
Leukemia SPORE Career Development Award, and the Cancer Therapy
Evaluation Program.

Adapted from materials provided by University of Texas M. D. Anderson
Cancer Center.

Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of
the following formats:
APA

MLA University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center (2008, January
29). Kidney Cancer Drug Attacks A Major Type Of Acute Myeloid
Leukemia. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 30, 2008, from
http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/01/080129160739.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080129160739.htm

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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

[StemCells] Re:Stem Cells

YES and I have tried it on my AUTISTIC boys, I only bought 1 bottle and gave 1/2 twice a day... and all I saw was a trigger of Viral Detox, and 2 days after my son's language got a bit better!!! But I stopped because of money issues, nice thing about is is that the content of the capsule is odorless and tasteless too!!! Easy to hide in juice like pomegranate (to hide the green color!!!) Love, Gabby. :0)

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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What is Stem Cell

Thursday, January 31, 2008

[StemCells] Vaccine Induced Demyelination

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

[StemCells] Trials begin for fat scs / regen. heart attack study

[StemCells] Newborns Learning/Memory & SCs

[StemCells] Impregnating Titanium Implants w/SC homing factors

[StemCells] ASCs for eye repair (Scientific American)

[StemCells] Clinical Trials: Stroke & CP

[StemCells] Kidney Cancer Drug for AML

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

[StemCells] Re:Stem Cells

Do you know about Stem Cells?

stem cell links

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