Category Archives: Cell Medicine

Osiris Therapeutics Launches Prestige Lyotechnology, a Novel Method for Ambient Storage of Living Cells and Tissues

COLUMBIA, Md., March 30, 2017 -- Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. (Pink Sheets:OSIR), a leading regenerative medicine company focused on developing and marketing products for wound care, orthopedics, and sports medicine, announced today that it has developed cutting edge technology enabling the preservation of living cells and tissues at ambient temperatures.

Historically, cryopreservation was the only available method that allowed for long-term preservation of living cells and tissues. However, cryopreservation requires ultra-low-temperature freezers and dry ice or liquid nitrogen for storage, which limits the widespread use of cellular therapies. To address this limitation, Osiris has developed Prestige Lyotechnology. Unlike all other known lyophilization methods, Prestige Lyotechnology enables the preservation of living cells within tissues while stored at ambient temperatures. Moreover, the manufacturing of lyopreserved living tissues with Prestige Lyotechnology is scalable and can be applied to many different cell and tissue types. Placental products will be the focus of the Companys first application of Prestige Lyotechnology.

This novel technology developed by Osiris will benefit the entire field of cellular therapies. It is expected to accelerate development, commercialization and widespread use of living cell and tissue therapies, said Alla Danilkovitch, Chief Scientific Officer at Osiris. Through more than two decades of basic and clinical research, Osiris has not only defined the science and potential of cellular regenerative therapies, but has also created a body of work, advancing the medical communitys understanding of cellular technology. With the introduction of Prestige Lyotechnology, Osiris is bringing these innovative cellular therapies to more patients to address a wide range of unmet medical needs.

The Osiriss Prestige Lyotechnology is featured in tomorrows online publication of Osiriss profile in the scientific journal Nature (www.nature.com), entitled Innovation on the shelf: solving the puzzle of live-cell preservation. The print version of this article will appear in the special annual MedTech Dealmakers issue of Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology and Nature Reviews Drug Discovery in May. Nature is the worlds most highly cited international, interdisciplinary science journal.

About Osiris Therapeutics Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., based in Columbia, Maryland, is a world leader in researching, developing, and marketing regenerative medicine products that improve health and lives of patients and lower overall healthcare costs. Having developed the world's first approved stem cell drug, the Company continues to advance its research and development in biotechnology by focusing on innovation in regenerative medicine including bioengineering, stem cell research and viable tissue based products. Osiris has achieved commercial success with products in wound care, orthopedics, and sports medicine, including Grafix, Stravix, BIO4 , and Cartiform. Osiris, Grafix, Stravix and Cartiform are trademarks of Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., and BIO4 is a trademark of Howmedica Osteonics Corp. More information can be found on the Companys website, http://www.Osiris.com. (OSIR-G)

Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements about our expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, intentions, assumptions and other statements that are not historical facts. Words or phrases such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "ongoing," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project" or similar words or phrases, or the negatives of those words or phrases, may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not necessarily mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Examples of forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements regarding the potential uses of Prestige Lyotechnology and the publication of Osiriss profile in Nature (www.nature.com). Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on potentially inaccurate assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expected or implied by the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not unduly rely on these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statement to reflect circumstances or events after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

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Osiris Therapeutics Launches Prestige Lyotechnology a Novel Method for Ambient Storage of Living Cells and Tissues - EconoTimes

March 30, 2017

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have successfully grown stem cells from children with a devastating neurological disease to help explain how different genetic backgrounds can cause common symptoms. The work sheds light on how certain brain disorders develop, and provides a framework for developing and testing new therapeutics. Medications that appear promising when exposed to the new cells could be precisely tailored to individual patients based on their genetic background.

In the new study, published in The American Journal of Human Genetics, researchers used stem cells in their laboratory to simultaneously model different genetic scenarios that underlie neurologic disease. They identified individual and shared defects in the cells that could inform treatment efforts.

The researchers developed programmable stem cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells, from 12 children with various forms of Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease, or PMD. The rare but often fatal genetic disease can be caused by one of hundreds of mutations in a gene critical to the proper production of nerve cell insulation, or myelin. Some children with PMD have missing, partial, duplicate, or even triplicate copies of this gene, while others have only a small mutation. With so many potential causes, researchers have been in desperate need of a way to accurately and efficiently model genetic diseases like PMD in human cells.

By recapitulating multiple stages of the disease in their laboratory, the researchers established a broad platform for testing new therapeutics at the molecular and cellular level. They were also able to link defects in brain cell function to patient genetics.

"Stem cell technology allowed us to grow cells that make myelin in the laboratory directly from individual PMD patients. By studying a wide spectrum of patients, we found that there are distinct patient subgroups.

This suggests that individual PMD patients may require different clinical treatment approaches," said Paul Tesar, PhD, study lead, Dr. Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman Professor of Innovative Therapeutics, and Associate Professor of Genetics and Genome Sciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

The researchers watched in real-time as the patients' stem cells matured in the laboratory. "We leveraged the ability to access patient-specific brain cells to understand why these cells are dysfunctional. We found that a subset of patients exhibited an overt dysfunction in certain cellular stress pathways," said Zachary Nevin, first author of the study and MD/PhD student at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "We used the cells to create a screening platform that can test medications for the ability to restore cell function and myelin. Encouragingly, we identified molecules that could reverse some of the deficits." The promising finding provides proof-of-concept that medications that mend a patient's cells in the laboratory could be advanced to clinical testing in the future.

The stem cell platform could also help other researchers study and classify genetic diseases with varied causes, particularly other neurologic disorders. Said Tesar, "Neurological conditions present a unique challenge, since the disease-causing cells are locked away in patients' brains and inaccessible to study. With these new patient-derived stem cells, we can now model disease symptoms in the laboratory and begin to understand ways to reverse them."

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Stem cells help explain varied genetics behind rare neurologic ... - Medical Xpress

March 30, 2017

Researchers have developed a new approach for growing and studying cells they hope one day will lead to curing lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis through "personalized medicine."

Researchers at the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM) at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) have discovered that one particular signaling pathway, Wnt, helps direct lung development. A signaling pathway is how developing cells get instruction on what types of cell to become, such as a liver cell, a skin cell, a brain cell, etc.

Using this finding, researchers implemented a new way to use stem cells made from any individual, including cells from patients with cystic fibrosis, and turn them into airway cells, which they then grew into three-dimensional spheres. These airway spheres now can be used to study cystic fibrosis disease activity using a specific test called a swelling assay.

"Because airway spheres from a patient with cystic fibrosis do not swell in our assay but airway spheres from a healthy person do, we can see whether adding a certain drug or combination of drugs causes them to swell more. Finding a drug that causes them to swell might imply that patient would benefit from that treatment," explained corresponding author Darrel Kotton, MD, director of the CReM and Seldin Professor of Medicine at BUSM.

"This study represents our progress towards making airway spheres from any patient with a lung disorder and learning about that patient's disease from those cells. We hope this leads to the ability to design, study and test new therapies for every patient on their own cells in the lab, leading to new treatments and breakthroughs in personalized medicine for individuals with a variety of lung diseases, including cystic fibrosis," explained lead author Katherine McCauley, a PhD student at BUSM.

The researchers believe this process can be used to study other lung diseases such as asthma and emphysema.

The findings are published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

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New research finds novel method for generating airway cells from stem cells - Medical Xpress

BRADENTON, Fla. By now, the time line for recovery from Tommy John surgery is familiar even to the casual baseball fan. It takes at least a year, usually more. It takes tedious, monotonous work on the part of the player.

Alternatives exist, but until now their use among established major leaguers has been limited if tried at all. This season could provide a referendum on two of them. One surgical procedure could cut the recovery time in half. Another treatment could help a player avoid surgery altogether.

I think it can definitely help the game, right-hander Seth Maness, who had a modified elbow ligament surgery in August, said by phone from spring training in Arizona. But the circumstances have to be right.

Maness had a surgery on his right elbow known as a primary repair or primary brace. The procedure reattaches the elbows ulnar collateral ligament to the bone with collagen-coated Arthrex tape. Los Angeles Angels starter Garrett Richards received a stem cell injection into his right elbow to heal his damaged UCL. So far, its working.

The last thing you want to do is have surgery, and if you do what your body does naturally, thats going to be stronger than any replacement surgery, Richards said, also by phone from spring training in Arizona. I just hope that this further gives guys a little bit of knowledge that you have options.

Neither procedure will replace Tommy John. Stem cells dont work in every case, and if the UCL is torn across the middle of the ligament, it needs to be replaced. The sample size for both is also small. But both provide options involving less recovery time for pitchers whose injuries fit a certain profile.

Maness, 28, spent four seasons pitching out of the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen and signed a minor league contract with the Kansas City Royals in February. Maness ligament had pulled away from the bone rather than tearing across the middle. Instead of needing a full Tommy John surgery, which requires grafting a tendon from the wrist or hamstring into the elbow to replace the UCL and at least a year of recovery, Maness was a candidate for a primary repair.

Really this primary brace technology had been used more widely in Europe, particularly for ligament injuries of the knee and the ankle, said Dr. George Paletta, St. Louis Cardinals head orthopedic surgeon who performed Maness surgery. So the concept or the idea was, OK, its working well there, is there a way to adapt it to the elbow?

Paletta had done roughly 60 primary repairs on amateur pitchers prior to operating on Maness and saw an average recovery time of 6 months. That background helped him establish three criteria he needed a young pitcher, an otherwise healthy ligament and, most importantly,the ligament needed to pull off the bone on one end rather than tear in the middle.

Weve had a lot of experience with ligaments healing directly to bone and we have a good understanding of that timetable, so we knew that by about 12 weeks after surgery, this repair should be pretty well healed and pretty solid at that point, Paletta said.

Cardinals reliever Mitch Harris also had the primary repair, as did a third pitcher with major league experience, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, with whom Maness first discussed the procedure in January. Cardinals non-roster outfielder/pitcher Jordan Schafer had the procedure this month.

The UCL in Richards right elbow had a tear running along the ligament, not across it. He sought second opinions from noted orthopedic surgeons Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Neal ElAttrache.

Dr. Andrews pretty much told me, Hey Garrett, if you were my son, I would try the stem cell first, Richards said.

Doctors removed stem cells from his pelvis and injected them into his elbow, in hopes the cells would heal the UCL. Stem cells, extracted from bone marrow, are able to develop into multiple different tissues and can promote healing.

It just feels tight. Youre putting fluid into a place that pretty much doesnt have any room for any more fluid, Richards said of the injection. If you can imagine youre just overfilling a certain area with this nice special sauce.

Teams sometimes use platelet-rich plasma injections, where blood is spun in a centrifuge to isolate growth factors Takashi Saitos PRP injection in 2008 was believed to be the first for a major league pitcher, and Masahiro Tanaka also has pitched successfully with a partially torn UCL after PRP treatment but stem cells are less common. Bartolo Colon, soldiering into his 20th major league season at 43 years old, had a stem cell treatment in 2010. Boston Red Sox left-hander Drew Pomeranz had a stem cell injection in his elbow this winter to address lingering soreness.But Pomeranz went on the disabled list Thursday with left forearm flexor strain.

It doesnt always work. Richards teammate, lefty Andrew Heaney, needed Tommy John last summer after stem cells didnt do the trick.

Richards six-week exam showed significant growth. His three-month check showed even more. He reported no issues this spring, his high-90s mph fastball is back and he is on track to open the season in the rotation.

Everything feels great, Richards said. Basically I took the year off, let my arm heal and now Im back doing what I always do. I just feel refreshed.

Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.

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How new-age medicine is helping Major League Baseball pitchers avoid injury - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

WARSAW, N.Y. (WIVB) An inmate at the Wyoming County Jail was charged with having contraband in her cell during a search.

Nicole Sullivan, 31, was serving time for criminal possession of a hypodermic instrument when the Wyoming County Sheriffs office says crushed up medication was found in her cell.

In addition to that, the Sheriffs office says paraphernalia used to inhale the medication was also found.

After this, Sullivan was charged with promoting prison contraband. She was arraigned in Village of Warsaw Court and held on $500 bail.

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March 28, 2017 6:44 PM By Dr. Mallika Marshall

BOSTON (CBS) An everyday problem in the medical community is a lack of blood donations which are needed for transfusions worldwide.

Aware of this issue, scientists are working on a procedure that could brew blood to help combat certain blood disorders.

Scientists work on brewing blood to end lack of blood supply. (WBZ-TV)

As a child in Jamaica, Claud DAguilar was diagnosed with sickle cell disease. Its something thats genetic. It starts from birth so basically youre going through this forever and ever. Amen. Until you die.

Sickle cell disease causes red blood cells to become curved and rigid, leading to severe pain.

Hell on wheels, explained DAguilar. The most excruciating pains you could think about. Something I wouldnt wish on my worst enemy.

Anemia is another common complication and often requires multiple blood transfusions. Thats where George Murphy, PhD, a stem cell scientist at the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Boston Medical Center, enters the picture.

Dr. George Murphy, stem cell scientist, explains the brewing blood process. (WBZ-TV)

We like to actually work on diseases that directly impact this under-served community, one of which is sickle cell disease, said Murphy.

He and his team are working on growing personalized blood cells in the lab that could one day help patients like DAguilar.

In essence, sort of brew blood, said Murphy.

Blood being brewed in lab. (WBZ-TV)

Using a small sample of a patients own blood, scientists can reprogram red blood cells back into master stem cells and then coax them back into red blood cells that are unique to that patient. They can then grow the red blood cells over and over again in the lab.

We could actually make a stem cell line from those particular patients who suffer from sickle cell disease, says Murphy.

Such personalized blood could meet a patients transfusion demands and even reduce the effects of the disease. DAguilar said that would be a win.

Scientist rotates brewed blood in sac. (WBZ-TV)

Not only for me but other people suffering, he said. That would be a godsend.

The process could assist millions of people worldwide who need blood products.

You could actually make a universal supply of blood that could be transfused into anyone, says Murphy.

Although not ready for prime time yet, stem cell derived blood could be available for transfusions in the general population, as Murphy says, Sooner than you think.

Follow Dr. Mallika Marshall on Twitter Mallika Marshall, MD, is an Emmy-award winning journalist and physician who serves as the regular Health Reporter at WBZ-TV in Boston. A practicing physician who is Board Certified in both internal medicine a...

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Local Doctor Working To 'Brew Blood' To Combat Certain Disorders - CBS Boston / WBZ

March 27, 2017 Killer T cells surround a cancer cell. Credit: NIH

In a research effort that merged genetics, physics and information theory, a team at the schools of medicine and engineering at The Johns Hopkins University has added significantly to evidence that large regions of the human genome have built-in variability in reversible epigenetic modifications made to their DNA.

In a report on the research published March 27 in Nature Genetics, the team says the findings also suggest that such epigenetic variability is a major factor in the ability of cancer cells to proliferate, adapt and metastasize.

"These results suggest that biology is not as deterministic as many scientists think," says Andrew Feinberg, M.D., M.P.H., the King Fahd Professor of Medicine, Oncology, and Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the Center for Epigenetics in the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences. "If so, they could have major implications for how we treat cancer and other aging-related diseases."

Epigenetic modifications, achieved along the genome by the chemical attachment of methyl molecules, or tags, to DNA, are reversible changes that alter which genes are turned on or off in a given cell without actually altering the DNA sequence of the cell. Such changes enable a complex organism, like a human, to have a wide range of different tissues that all still have the exact same genetic template.

However, in some studies with laboratory mice, Feinberg had observed that these epigenetic tags varied considerably among the mice even when comparing the same type of tissue in animals that have been living in the exact same conditions. "These weren't minor differences, and some very important genes were involved," Feinberg says.

Feinberg, who is also a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Public Health at The Johns Hopkins University, suspected that this variation might be an adaptive feature by which built-in epigenetic randomness would give some cells an advantage in rapidly changing environments.

To find out if that was the case, he teamed up with John Goutsias, Ph.D., professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, to find a way to measure this controlled type of randomness, scientifically termed epigenetic stochasticity, by using the information-theoretic concept of Shannon entropy.

Using a mathematical model known as the Ising model, invented to describe phase transitions in statistical physics, such as how a substance changes from liquid to gas, the Johns Hopkins researchers calculated the probability distribution of methylation along the genome in several different human cell types, including normal and cancerous colon, lung and liver cells, as well as brain, skin, blood and embryonic stem cells.

As Goutsias explains, this distribution reflects the chance that a particular region of a genome will be methylated in a population of similar cells. In areas of low randomness, this probability would mostly be 0 or 100 percent, but in areas of high randomness, the numbers would be 50-50 or thereabouts.

The analysis revealed that the human genome is organized into large pieces of low or high epigenetic stochasticity, and that these regions correspond to areas of chromosomes that are structurally different in the cell nucleus. Feinberg thinks that a main function of a cell's nucleus might be to partition the genome to make sure that regions of low or high stochasticity are well-defined.

The other significant finding of the study, says Garrett Jenkinson, Ph.D., assistant research scientist at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering who carried out much of the analyses, was that this variability goes haywire in cancer cells, which may display significant regional differences in methylation stochasticity compared to normal cells. Based on the evolutionary idea that targeted epigenetic stochasticity can improve adaptation, these observations could explain how cancer cells are good at evading chemotherapy treatments and spreading from one part of the body to another, he adds.

"Researchers have understood the importance of epigenetics in driving cancer growth, but the focus has been trying to reverse epigenetic changes to specific genes," Feinberg says. "We need to readjust and think more broadly about the epigenetic process as a whole." Looking at ways to reverse aberrant changes in variability to make cancer cells more epigenetically controlled should be a target for therapy, he adds.

Earlier this year, Feinberg led a study that considered this view of epigenetics in metastatic pancreatic cancer cells. Using an experimental drug called 6-aminonicotinamide, his group reversed the large-scale epigenetic changes that enabled the tumor cells in mice to metastasize and slow the growth of further tumors.

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More information: Potential energy landscapes identify the information-theoretic nature of the epigenome, Nature Genetics, nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/ng.3811

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In many parts of the world, including Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, exposure to a fungal product called aflatoxin is believed to cause up to 80 percent of liver cancer cases. This fungus is often found in corn, peanuts, ...

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In a research effort that merged genetics, physics and information theory, a team at the schools of medicine and engineering at The Johns Hopkins University has added significantly to evidence that large regions of the human ...

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How randomness helps cancer cells thrive - Medical Xpress - Medical Xpress

March 27, 2017

Many cancer patients struggle with the adverse effects of chemotherapy, still the most prescribed cancer treatment. For patients with pancreatic cancer and other aggressive cancers, the forecast is more grim: there is no known effective therapy.

A new Tel Aviv University study published last month in Oncotarget discloses the role of three proteins in killing fast-duplicating cancer cells while they're dividing. The research, led by Prof. Malka Cohen-Armon of TAU's Sackler School of Medicine, finds that these proteins can be specifically modified during the division processmitosisto unleash an inherent "death mechanism" that self-eradicates duplicating cancer cells.

"The discovery of an exclusive mechanism that kills cancer cells without impairing healthy cells, and the fact that this mechanism works on a variety of rapidly proliferating human cancer cells, is very exciting," Prof. Cohen-Armon said. "According to the mechanism we discovered, the faster cancer cells proliferate, the faster and more efficiently they will be eradicated. The mechanism unleashed during mitosis may be suitable for treating aggressive cancers that are unaffected by traditional chemotherapy.

"Our experiments in cell cultures tested a variety of incurable human cancer typesbreast, lung, ovary, colon, pancreas, blood, brain," Prof. Cohen-Armon continued. "This discovery impacts existing cancer research by identifying a new specific target mechanism that exclusively and rapidly eradicates cancer cells without damaging normally proliferating human cells."

The research was conducted in collaboration with Prof. Shai Izraeli and Dr. Talia Golan of the Cancer Research Center at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, and Prof. Tamar Peretz, head of the Sharett Institute of Oncology at Hadassah Medical Center, Ein Kerem.

A new target for cancer research

The newly-discovered mechanism involves the modification of specific proteins that affect the construction and stability of the spindle, the microtubular structure that prepares duplicated chromosomes for segregation into "daughter" cells during cell division.

The researchers found that certain compounds called Phenanthridine derivatives were able to impair the activity of these proteins, which can distort the spindle structure and prevent the segregation of chromosomes. Once the proteins were modified, the cell was prevented from splitting, and this induced the cell's rapid self-destruction.

"The mechanism we identified during the mitosis of cancer cells is specifically targeted by the Phenanthridine derivatives we tested," Prof. Cohen-Armon said. "However, a variety of additional drugs that also modify these specific proteins may now be developed for cancer cell self-destruction during cell division. The faster the cancer cells proliferate, the more quickly they are expected to die."

Research was conducted using both cancer cell cultures and mice transplanted with human cancer cells. The scientists harnessed biochemical, molecular biology and imaging technologies to observe the mechanism in real time. In addition, mice transplanted with triple negative breast cancer cells, currently resistant to available therapies, revealed the arrest of tumor growth.

"Identifying the mechanism and showing its relevance in treating developed tumors opens new avenues for the eradication of rapidly developing aggressive cancers without damaging healthy tissues," said Prof. Cohen-Armon.

The researchers are currently investigating the potential of one of the Phenanthridine derivatives to treat two aggressive cancers known to be unresponsive to current chemotherapy: pancreatic cancer and triple negative breast cancer.

Explore further: Nanoparticle paves the way for new triple negative breast cancer drug

More information: Leonid Visochek et al, Exclusive destruction of mitotic spindles in human cancer cells, Oncotarget (2017). DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.15343

Journal reference: Oncotarget

Provided by: Tel Aviv University

In many parts of the world, including Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, exposure to a fungal product called aflatoxin is believed to cause up to 80 percent of liver cancer cases. This fungus is often found in corn, peanuts, ...

A genetic trawl through the DNA of almost 100,000 people, including 17,000 patients with the most common type of ovarian cancer, has identified 12 new genetic variants that increase risk of developing the disease and confirmed ...

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In a research effort that merged genetics, physics and information theory, a team at the schools of medicine and engineering at The Johns Hopkins University has added significantly to evidence that large regions of the human ...

Scientists at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have shown that p300, a protein that increases gene expression by attaching acetyl molecules to DNA, may stop myelodysplastic ...

(HealthDay)MRI screening might greatly reduce overdiagnosis and overtreatment of prostate cancer in older men, a preliminary study suggests.

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Dr. David Ikudayisi is the Medical Director, Glory Wellness & Regenerative Centre, a multi-specialty health care center, in Lagos and Abuja. Ikudayisi who is based in the United States said he is excited about the prospects of coming back home to help put Nigeria on the continental and global medical map through regenerative medicine. He also spoke on the controversy surrounding embroyonic stem cell therapy among others.

What is regenerative medicine allabout?

Regenerative Medicine is a branch of medicine that aims to restore normal function by repairing or replacing damaged or malfunctioning cells and tissues in patients who have lost tissue or organ function due to age, disease, or congenital defects. It comprises different components including, Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Therapy and Adult Stem Cell (ASC) Therapy, etc.

I was inspired into this branch of medicine when I was looking for alternative ways to alleviate my patients pain in USA without using addictive pain medications and frequent steroid injections. I discovered the benefits of the Platelet Rich Plasma and/or Adult Stem Cell Therapy for patients who were in need of joint pain relief, youthful appearance, or a restored sexual function.

In medical school, we were taught that the central nervous system rarely regenerates, that there is little or no hope for paralyzed patients, and that damaged brain tissue may be a permanent condition, just to name a few.

Nowadays, the re-growth of brain cells and improvements of neurological function in spinal cord injured patients have been documented. When applicable, adult stem cell treatment is basically a medical time machine. The results doctors see in medical practice every day is what keeps my drive for the advancement of regenerative medicine.

How will regenerative medicine help address health care challenges in Nigeria?

Nigeria has a lot of ways to go when it comes to health, as we are recording very poor health indices in recent times. This can be traced to not enough emphasizes on preventive medicine or regenerative medicine. We tend to lose hope at different stages of degrading health rather than come up with solutions that can be attainable no matter the initial cost. If taken without levity, Regenerative Medicine, as in Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Therapy & Adult Stem Cell (ASC) Therapy, can help reduce our mortality rate in Nigeria, thereby recording better health indices.

This branch of medicine holds answers to many questions and problems that we doctors used to believe had no solutions. Many medical conditions that we thought were not treatable are now treatable. We have ample evidence to show the potentials of regenerative medicines for ailments that have domineered our people. The use of these techniques will propel Nigerian healthcare to boundless heights if provided the opportunity.

Regenerative medicine has a vast amount of uses especially for people who seek to stop being dependent on taking medications daily, avoid surgery, feel younger and more energized, perform their marital enjoyment at older ages, and prevent the manifestation of some complications of diseases.

Many countries around the world are taking advantage of these therapies, and Nigeria should not be left behind. I know this is not an undertaking with quick payoff nationally, but I believe that with these innovations, Nigeria can be the centre for medical tourism in Africa. This is not a cheap option, as most novel innovations never are, but it will pay dividends in the long run, and we have seen proofs of that.

Some doctors are already offering regenerative medicine (PRP therapy and ASCT) in Nigeria. So, people dont have to travel abroad to benefit from regenerative medicine. Just ask your doctor if someone in your area is offering ASCT and PRP Therapy.

What illnesses does ASCT and PRP therapy treat?

The applications of ASCT are enormous, and there is much more to be discovered. To determine if this can be of use in a particular medical problem, just ask if there is a need for repair and/regeneration of any part of the human tissue/organ: if yes, then the ASCT with/without PRP therapy may be an option that will help. The exceptions are non-hematological cancer treatments, as these treatments with stem cells are under investigations/research using tissue engineering.

More specifically, these therapies can be used for issues like multiple joint pain, back pain, meniscal tears, ligament tears, avascular necrosis of the hip joints, facet arthropathy, hair thinning, erectile dysfunction, female sexual dysfunction, female urinary incontinence, cosmetic/aesthetic applications (vampire facial, vampire facelift, vampire breast and nipple lift); diabetes, hypertension, anti-aging (generalized treatment), chronic kidney disease, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, COPD (lung disease) and infertility (helps to increase fertility chances and not serve as a cure), to mention a few.

Why is there controversy around embryonic stem cell therapy?

The ethical, religious and moral arguments for and against Embryonic Stem Cell use has been stressed for many years now. Stem cells possess the ability to make new cells needed in the body. Embryonic stem cells are an example of this. In the body, they are what we use to develop the cells we later go on to have.

Many scientists prefer it because of its endless possibilities to recreate virtually any type of cell in the body. However, it involves the use of embryos from day 6 to day 14; that is, a baby-to-be in the first two weeks of pregnancy or after In vitro fertilization (IVF). As you can see, this involves tampering with potential or future babies that are yet to be born. This has both religious and ethical issues, leading to the controversy around it.

What is the difference between adult stem cell therapy and cloning?

It is important to understand that there are three main types of stem therapies. In addition to Embryonic Stem Cell (ESC) therapy, there are also induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) therapy and Adult Stem Cells (ASC)therapy. iPSCs are produced in the lab by reprogramming adult cells to express embryonic stem cells characteristics, and Adult Stem Cells (ASC) are retrieved from individuals bone marrow, adipose (fat) or umbilical cord. Although ASCs can be used for a vast number of therapies, they do not possess the same capabilities as ESCs, but the downside of limited growth and differentiation makes ASCs applicable in medicine today.

Cloning on the other hand is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical organisms to sometimes replace damaged or lost tissues or organs. Every single bit of their DNA is identical to the original specimen. Clones can happen naturally, like identical twins or triplets, or they can be made in the lab, like Dolly the sheep. Reproductive cloning for humans has been banned in several countries, and mainstream scientists consider it unethical.

Continued here:
'Nigeria should harness potentials of regenerative medicine' - Daily Trust

Fort Lauderdale, FL Life Extension has partnered with Insilico Medicine to introduce Ageless Cell, the first supplement in its GEROPROTECT line to promote healthy aging by inhibiting cellular senescence.

Cellular senescence is a natural part of the aging process where cells no longer function optimally, affecting organ function, cellular metabolism, and the inflammation response. The accumulation of these senescent cells contributes to the process of aging. The Ageless Cell supplements inhibit the effects of cellular senescence by acting as geroprotectors, or interventions aimed to increase longevity and impede the onset of age-related diseases by targeting and inhibiting senescence-inducing pathways and inhibiting the development of senescent cells.

The partnership with Insilico Medicine allowed researchers to use deep learning algorithms to comb through hundreds of studies and thousands of data points a process that could have taken decades to identify four key anti-aging nutrients: N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC), myricetin, gamma-tocotrienol, and EGCG. These compounds target pathways that are known to contribute to or protect against the development of senescent cells.

Specifically, NAC upregulates signaling pathways that protect cells against oxidative stress, which promotes cellular senescence. It also reduces pathways that promote inflammation. Myricetin regulates a family of stress-responsive signaling molecules known to regulate aging in many tissues. It also promotes cell differentiation and self-repair. Gamma tocotrienol modulates the mevalonate pathway that controls cholesterol production, cancer promotion, and bone formation. And EGCG regulates the Wnt pathway that determines the fate of developing cells and also prevents sugar-induced damage to tissues, helping to suppress their pro-aging effects.

Clinical aging studies are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to perform at this time. Our collaboration with Insilico Medicine has allowed us to develop geroprotective formulations by using artificial intelligence to study very large data sets, said Andrew G. Swick, Ph.D., senior vice president of product development and scientific affairs for Life Extension.

Scientists found these four nutrients have various complementary and reinforcing properties to influence key anti-aging pathways and combat aging factors by modulating specific biological pathways. By rejuvenating near-senescent cells and encouraging the bodys healthy process for dealing with senescent cells, Ageless Cell turns back the clock at the cellular level, said Michael A. Smith, M.D., senior health scientist for Life Extension.

Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D., CEO of Insilico Medicine said, Together, these four natural compounds represent the beginning of the future anti-aging cocktails identified using artificial intelligence under expert human supervision.

Read more:
Life Extension and Insilico Medicine Use Artificial Intelligence to Develop Ageless Cell - WholeFoods Magazine