Category Archives: Stem Cell Therapy

SAN DIEGO CA--(Marketwire -06/29/12)- Medistem Inc. (MEDS) announced today notice of allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a patent covering the use of fat stem cells, and cells associated with fat stem cells for treatment of diseases related to a dysfunctional immune system. Such diseases include multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. The allowed patent, entitled "Stem Cell Mediated Treg Activation/Expansion for Therapeutic Immune Modulation" has the earliest priority date of December 2006.

"We have previously published that giving multiple sclerosis patients cells extracted from their own fat tissue, which contains stem cells, appears to confer clinical benefit in a pilot study," said Thomas Ichim, CEO of Medistem. "The current patent that has been allowed, in the broadest interpretation of the claims, gives us exclusive rights to the use of specific types of fat stem cell therapy for autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis."

Subsequent to the filing of the patent application, Medistem together with collaborators at the Lawson Health Sciences Research Institute, Canada, reported data that fat tissue contains high numbers of T regulatory cells, a type of immune cell that is capable of controlling autoimmunity.

This finding was independently confirmed by Dr. Diane Mathis' laboratory at Harvard University, who published a paper in the prestigious journal, Nature Medicine, in which detailed experimental evidence was provided supporting the initial finding that adipose tissue contains high numbers of T regulatory cells. A video describing the paper can be accessed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEJfGu29Rg8.

The current patent discloses the use of T regulatory cells from fat, combinations with stem cells, and use of fat-derived mononuclear cells. Given that there are currently several groups utilizing this technology in the USA in treating patients, Medistem believes revenue can be generated through enforcement of patent rights.

"Our corporate philosophy has been to remain highly focused on our ongoing clinical stage programs using Medistem's universal donor stem cell, the Endometrial Regenerative Cell (ERC), in the treatment of critical limb ischemia and congestive heart failure," said Dr. Vladimir Bogin, Chairman and President of Medistem. "However, due to the ease of implementation of our fat stem cell technology, combined with the major burden that autoimmune diseases have on our health care system, we are highly incentivized to explore partnering, co-development and licensing opportunities."

Autoimmune conditions occur as a result of the body's immune system "turning on itself" and attacking its own organs or cells. Current treatments for autoimmune conditions are based on "globally" suppressing the immune system by administration of immunosuppressive drugs. This is associated with an increased predisposition to infections and significant side effects. The utilization of stem cells and T regulatory cells offers the potential to selectively suppress pathological immunity while preserving the ability of the body to fight bacteria and viruses. According to the NIH there are approximately 23 million victims of autoimmune conditions.

Links to Documents:

Link to peer-reviewed publication: http://www.translational-medicine.com/content/pdf/1479-5876-7-29.pdf

Link: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/medistem-files-patent-application-on-therapeutic-cell-population-found-in-fat-tissue-frankfurt-s2u-812298.htm

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Medistem Receives Notice of Patent Allowance Covering Fat Stem Cell Therapy of Autoimmune Diseases

MOBILE, Alabama -- The Baldwin County doctor that treated former Alabama football players with adult stem cells also has treated at least two people diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrigs disease.

One of the ALS patients, former NFL football player and college coach Frank Orgel, recently underwent a new stem cell reprogramming technique performed by Dr. Jason R. Williams at Precision StemCell in Gulf Shores.

Before the injections, Orgels health had declined. He could not move his left arm or leg. He couldnt walk or stand on his own, he said.

Within a few days of having the stem cell treatment, Orgels constant muscle twitching diminished, said Bob Hubbard, director of stem cell therapy at the practice. Within weeks, he was able to walk in a pool of water and stand unassisted.

I think its helped me, said Orgel, who was a defensive coordinator at Auburn under former head coach Pat Dye. Im walking in the pool and I used to drag my feet. Now my left leg is picking up.

ALS is a progressive neuro-degenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to death, according to the ALS Association.

Stem cells, sometimes called the bodys master cells, are precursor cells that develop into blood, bones and organs, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which regulates their use. Their promise in medicine, according to many scientists and doctors, is that the cells have the potential to help and regenerate other cells.

While Williams treatments are considered investigational, he has said, they meet FDA guidelines because the stem cells are collected from a patients fat tissue and administered back to that patient during the same procedure.

Orgel, 74, said Williams told him it would take between eight months to a year for his nerves to regrow. He is traveling to Gulf Shores from his home in Albany, Ga., this weekend for another stem cell treatment, Orgel said: I need to get to where I can walk.

In recent years, Orgel has gone to Mexico at least three times for different types of treatments, not sanctioned in the U.S. At least once, he said, he had placenta cells injected into his body. That didnt work, Orgel said. I didnt feel any better.

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Former Auburn coach getting stem cell treatments for Lou Gehrig's disease

VANCOUVER -- For the first time ever, University of B.C. scientists have used human embryonic stem cell transplants to reverse Type 1 diabetes in mice with the disease, giving hope to about 300 million people around the world who suffer from the chronic disease.

A 13-member team, whose milestone work is published in the journal Diabetes, shows that after transplantation, the stem cells matured into insulin-secreting, pancreatic beta-cells. The cells automatically sensed blood sugar levels to release the right amount of insulin and a few dozen diabetic mice were gradually weaned off insulin given to them over a period of months.

Insulin is produced by beta-cells to to help the body absorb sugar and use it for energy.

Essentially, the mice were cured of their diabetes by placing the body back in charge of regulated insulin production as it is in healthy, non-diabetics, said lead author Timothy Kieffer.

It took about four to five months for the [stem] cells to become functional in our experiments and the mice were able to maintain good blood glucose levels even when fed a high-glucose diet, said Kieffer, a UBC professor in the department of cellular and physiological sciences.

Type 1 diabetes otherwise known as juvenile diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which a patients immune system kills off insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. About 10 per cent of diabetics are Type 1 and typically, they must inject themselves with insulin or use pumps to control their blood glucose levels.

While pancreatic islet cell transplantation pioneered at the University of Alberta several years ago has been shown to be an effective way of reducing dependence on insulin injections, the treatment is costly and cumbersome as it requires donor cells from cadavers, which are always in short supply. As well, islet cell transplant patients must forever take anti-rejection drugs that can cause organ damage.

In the study methodology, mice were anesthetized and then injected with millions of cells derived from stem cells which were placed under the left kidney area.

Although the research showed that stem cells may one day provide a cure for diabetes, it also revealed hurdles to overcome before agencies like the Food and Drug Administration in the United States or Health Canada can approve the therapy.

For example, some mice developed bone or cartilage in areas where the cells were inserted, an unacceptable side-effect that future experiments must resolve.

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Diabetes breakthrough: UBC scientists reverse disease in mice using stem-cell transplants

Featured Article Academic Journal Main Category: Stem Cell Research Also Included In: Eye Health / Blindness;Diabetes;Multiple Sclerosis Article Date: 27 Jun 2012 - 9:00 PDT

Current ratings for: Stem Cell Breakthrough Significant For Degenerative Diseases

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But it is a long journey from showing something works in the research lab to using it safely and ethically in patients, and there are many hurdles.

One such hurdle is providing stem cells lines "developed under stringent ethical guidelines, from traceable and tested donors, preferably in an animal-free, GMP-grade culture system," write the researchers in a comprehensive paper published online on 20 June in the open access journal PLoS ONE.

Another, is to ensure the hESCs meet safety criteria, and do not have traces of animal components, such as from mice and cows, as these can introduce the risk of animal pathogens running amok in the patient's body.

Now after 12 years of painstaking work, researchers at the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, have announced they have created three new lines of "xeno-free and GMP-grade human embryonic stem cells".

In their paper, lead investigator professor Benjamin Reubinoff, a world-renowned stem-cell pioneer and the new chairman of obstetrics/gynecology at the Ein Kerem medical center, and colleagues, describe the journey they took to produce clinically-compliant hESCs.

They conclude that the three hESC lines they produced "may be valuable for regenerative therapy".

And they also suggest that the "ethical, scientific and regulatory methodology" they followed may serve as a model for developing further clinical-grade hESCs.

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Stem Cell Breakthrough Significant For Degenerative Diseases

Johannesburg, South Africa (PRWEB) June 27, 2012

After three-year-old Isabella Pippie Kruger was burned on over 80% of her body in a tragic accident, her mother was left searching for a viable option to repair her extremely damaged skin and save her life.

The solution came from across the globe in the form of a company called Genzyme in Boston, MA. Genzyme has developed a protocol for cultivating autologous epidural stem cells in order to generate new skin for patients who have suffered extreme skin trauma.

Genzyme was able to graft 41 sheets of new skin that was made of Pippies own genetic material. This was then flown across the world to South Africa, where the procedure of grafting her new skin took place. It was the first time this type of procedure was administered in South Africa.

Global collaboration in the administration of stem cell therapies to treat previously untreatable conditions is accelerating the paradigm shift in the medical community for the treatment of disease, trauma and injury; a shift that is spearheaded by the utilization of autologous stem cells. The use of the patients own stem cells in emerging regenerative therapies eliminates the chance of rejection of the transplanted tissue and the need for immuno-suppression drugs leading to more favorable outcomes.

To learn more about how families can bank their own, valuable stem cells to ensure access to a variety of emerging regenerative treatments and therapies, visit http://www.stemsave.com or call 877-783-6728 (877-StemSave) today.

The future of Regenerative Medicine is now.

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Global Collaboration Enables Stem Cell Therapy to Rehabilitate Tragically Burned 3-Year-Old

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Concluding a series of conference presentations in recent months, California Stem Cell (CSC) Medical Director and Principal Investigator Robert O. Dillman, M.D. will be delivering an oral presentation at todays Biotherapeutics & Stem Cell Processing Symposia in London, UK. The presentation will provide details and phase II clinical trial results from a promising therapy for the treatment of metastatic melanoma, recently acquired by CSC from Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. In two previous presentations at both the AACR and ASCO conferences in Chicago, Dr. Dillman compared pooled data from this and two other phase II immunotherapies for the treatment of metastatic melanoma.

Data pooled from three successive phase II trials were compared in order to determine the impact on overall survival rates of patient specific immunotherapies utilizing antigens from autologous cancer stem cells. Results demonstrated that autologous dendritic cells loaded with antigens from cancer stem cells significantly improved survival rates and time to recurrence when compared with treatments using irradiated cancer cells alone. 2-year overall survival rates tracked at 72%, as compared to 45% from the therapy using only irradiated cancer stem cells. 5-year median survivals of patients tracked over 50%, double that of any other current treatments.

California Stem Cell acquired the entirety of Hoag Hospitals metastatic melanoma research program in October of 2011 and plans to initiate Phase III trials in the near future.

About California Stem Cell

California Stem Cell, Inc. (CSC) is an Irvine, CA based company which has developed proprietary methods to generate human stem cell lines, expand them to clinically and commercially useful numbers, and differentiate them at extremely high purity using fully-defined, proprietary media and GMP processes. CSC is able to supply its human cell populations to companies and institutions worldwide for use in the development of therapies, efficacy screening or the creation of toxicity profiles for candidate drugs, and experimental research tools.

CSC is focused on the development of stem cell based therapies for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrigs Disease), and metastatic cancers.

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California Stem Cell Medical Director Robert O. Dillman, M.D. to Present Details, Phase II Trial Results of Melanoma ...