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Stem cell therapy a boon for Parkinson patients

Posted: February 27, 2015 at 1:41 am

Bengaluru, Feb 25, 2015, dhns:

Two courses of stem cell therapy have helped Ashok Kumar, 59, who suffered from tremors and rigidity due to Parkinsons disease, recover completely, much to the joy of his family.

The man was brought inside my cabin in a wheelchair. He was unable to even sit on the chair without support. Today, he walks independently. Stem cell therapy has made it possible for him, said Dr Naseem Sadiq, Director, Plexus Neuro and Stem Cell Research Centre, who began treating Kumar in October, last year.

Previously, medication and surgical procedure were the only treatment option for Parkinsons disease. Medication in the long-term often lacks effectiveness and may cause side effects, while surgery is not always feasible. Lately, stem cell therapy has turned out to be a boon for patients with Parkinsons, Dr Sadiq said.

Kumar is among the few who have benefited from stem cell therapy. However, though the State has been reporting an increase in the number of registered stem cell donors, it is far behind sufficient as the genetic match between donor and recipient could be anywhere between one in 10,000 and one in two million, according to experts.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Raghu Rajgopal, co-founder, Datri, a registry for stem cell donation, said, The response we get from Karnataka when we conduct stem cell camps is great. We see a lot of people and registering with us.

As many as 6,000 people have registered from the State under the Datri registry. A total of 72,000 people have registered across the country. In Kerala, 11,000 have signed up, the highest so far, he said.

Among the common myths are that by donating stem cells one turns infertile and weak, have increased chances of cancer and also that there would be excess loss of blood, he said.

According to studies, over one lakh people are diagnosed with Leukemia (blood cancer) and other blood disorders every year in India.

The Indian Council of Medical Research has predicted that by the end of 2015, Leukemia cases will reach an estimated 1,17,649 and 1,32,574 by 2020. Stem cell therapy is a widely used treatment mechanism for Leukemia.

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KIMS offers services based on stem cell therapy

Posted: February 27, 2015 at 1:41 am

Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) on Wednesday announced the launch of department of regenerative medicine, which will offer services based on stem cell therapy.

Some of the services that will be offered in the department include diabetic foot, scleroderma that involves hardening of skin etc.

The regenerative medicine department will focus on development of diagnostic and therapeutic concepts and their implementation in various disease conditions, said head of regenerative department, Kanakabhushanam.

The doctors said all the therapies offered at the new centre are approved by institutional Committee for Stem Cell Research and Therapy (ICSCRT) and registered with Clinical Trials Registry-India (CTRI).

Already, since September, 2014, the regenerative medicine centre has been treating close to six patients who have diabetic foot. In future, the department will take up research in delayed non-union of fractures and even diabetic neuropathy, a common condition among diabetics wherein nerves get damaged.

MD and CEO, KIMS Hospital, B. Bhaskar Rao, former NIMS Director Kakarla Subba Rao and other top doctors from the hospital were present.

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Small molecule helps get stem cells to sites of disease and damage

Posted: February 27, 2015 at 1:41 am

An industry-academic research collaboration yields a new strategy for delivering stem cells to the right location

IMAGE:Researchers identified a small molecule that can be used to program mesenchymal stem cells (blue and green) to home in on sites of damage. view more

Credit: Oren Levy, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Bioengineers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) with collaborators at the pharmaceutical company Sanofi have identified small molecules that can be used to program stem cells to home in on sites of damage, disease and inflammation. The techniques used to find and test these small molecules may represent important tools in advancing cell-based therapy, offering a new strategy for delivering cells to the right locations in the body. The results of their work appear online this week in Cell Reports.

Through a collaborative research project, the research team tested more than 9,000 compounds, and used a multi-step approach - including a sophisticated microfluidics set up and novel imaging technique - to narrow in on and test the most promising compounds.

"There are all kinds of techniques and tools that can be used to manipulate cells outside of the body and get them to do almost anything we want, but once we transplant cells we lose complete control over them," said co-senior author Jeff Karp, PhD, an associate professor at BWH, Harvard Medical School, and principal faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. "Through this collaboration, we've been able to identify small molecules that can be used to treat cells outside of the body, programming them to target blood vessels in diseased or damaged tissue."

Small molecules offered the team several advantages including the ability to use a safe and relatively simple procedure to pre-treat the cells before injecting them intravenously.

"There's a great need to develop strategies that improve the clinical impact of cell-based therapies," said co-first author Oren Levy, PhD, an instructor in medicine at BWH. "If you can create an engineering strategy that is safe, cost effective and simple to apply, that's exactly what we need to achieve the promise of cell-based therapy."

Karp's team at the Brigham had previously found that it is possible to use bioengineering techniques to chemically attach molecules to the surface of a cell that act as a GPS, guiding the cell to the site of inflammation. These findings indicated that targeted delivery of cells was possible, but a scalable approach would be needed to impact patients.

"At BWH, we had laid the groundwork. Our collaborators at Sanofi have complementary expertise in screening for small molecules, deep understanding of the biology and unmet needs, and an exceptional ability to bring new therapeutics to the clinic," said Karp. "Defined goals and both teams working seamlessly together created perfect synergy. We learned so much from each other."

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Researchers Find Link Between Inflammation, Tissue Regeneration and Wound Repair Response

Posted: February 26, 2015 at 12:59 am

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Newswise Almost all injuries, even minor skin scratches, trigger an inflammatory response, which provides protection against invading microbes but also turns on regenerative signals needed for healing and injury repair a process that is generally understood but remains mysterious in its particulars.

Writing in the February 25 online issue of Nature, an international team of scientists, headed by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, report finding new links between inflammation and regeneration: signaling pathways that are activated by a receptor protein called gp130. We found that gp130 is capable of activating several signaling pathways that turn on a number of transcription factors known to have a key role in stem cell biology, said the studys lead author, Koji Taniguchi, MD, PhD, assistant project scientist in the Department of Pharmacology at UC San Diego.

These transcription factors specifically STAT3, YAP and Notch stimulate the proliferation and survival of normal tissue stem cells, which lead to healing and repair, said senior author Michael Karin, PhD, Distinguished Professor Pharmacology and Pathology and head of UC San Diegos Laboratory of Gene Regulation and Signal Transduction.

While the work was mainly conducted on a mouse model of intestinal injury, similar to the one that underlies human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), we provide evidence that the same mechanism may control liver regeneration, which suggests a general role in tissue repair, said Karin.

In addition to explaining a key biomedical phenomenon, the researchers said the findings have important clinical implications for the treatment of IBD and colorectal cancer. The major signal sensed by gp130 is the inflammatory hormone (cytokine) IL-6 and closely related proteins. Expression of IL-6 has been found to be elevated in IBD, both in Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis, giving rise to the possibility that inhibition of IL-6 binding to its receptor a complex between gp130 and a specific IL-6 binding protein may ameliorate the pathology of IBD.

But just the opposite has been observed. Drugs that block the binding of IL-6 to its receptor complex actually increase the risk of intestinal perforation and bleeding, making them unsuitable for the treatment of IBD. The new work suggests that IL-6 and the signaling pathways it stimulates are not the cause of IBD, but are part of the natural protective reaction to the initial injury and inflammatory response associated with the onset of IBD.

The Taniguchi and Karin team say it is important that future treatments not interfere with the healing response triggered by IL-6 and gp130. Nonetheless, the same pathways involved in healing and regeneration can go awry and become chronically stimulated in colorectal cancer.

The new work defines several molecular targets suitable for development of new targeted therapies for this very common malignancy the third leading cause of cancer-related death, though Karin cautioned that such treatments should not be combined with conventional and highly toxic anti-cancer drugs whose major side effect is damage and inflammation of the intestinal mucosa, a disease known as mucositis that will only be exacerbated by blocking the regenerative response triggered by IL-6.

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MD Anderson Names Hwu as Head of Cancer Medicine

Posted: February 26, 2015 at 12:58 am

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Newswise Patrick Hwu, M.D., chair of Melanoma Medical Oncology and Sarcoma Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, has been named division head of Cancer Medicine effective March 4.

Hwus selection came after a competitive national search to fill the position currently being served by Richard Champlin, M.D., on an ad interim basis. Champlin will continue to serve as chair of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.

Dr. Hwu is an internationally respected physician-scientist who has 25 years of experience in the fields of tumor immunology, targeted therapies and translational studies, said Ethan Dmitrovsky, M.D., provost and executive vice president. Hes a seasoned leader and has successfully chaired two departments and served as co-director of MD Andersons Center for Cancer Immunology Research and its immunotherapy platform. He has also held endowed positions, including the Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Distinguished University Chair in Cancer Research. Were delighted that he will be leading this vital division, and are thankful for Dr. Champlins skillful leadership during our search for a new division head.

Hwu earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and served as a house officer in internal medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed a fellowship in oncology at the National Cancer Institute, where he continued to work for 10 years as a principal investigator leading tumor immunology studies. He joined MD Anderson in 2003 as the first chair of Melanoma Medical Oncology.

Dr. Hwu is an accomplished clinician, researcher and administrator who is well positioned to take the Division of Cancer Medicine already recognized as a global leader to the next level, said Raymond S. Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice chancellor for health affairs, The University of Texas System.

An expert in tumor immunology, Hwu has translated multiple concepts from the laboratory to the clinic and helped to launch the field of gene modified T cells, publishing research on the first chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) directed against cancer. Clinical trials using CAR-transduced T cells now are being studied in many types of cancers, and MD Anderson has established an adoptive T cell therapy program, treating more than 80 melanoma patients with T cells to date.

In addition, Hwu has produced novel, ongoing clinical trials based on his teams findings, including a study of combination T cell and dendritic cell therapy and a study of T cells modified with chemokine receptor genes to enhance their migration to the tumor. His most recent preclinical studies have focused on combinations of immune checkpoint blockade and T cell therapy, as well as rational combinations of targeted therapies and immunotherapies. Both of these concepts are being translated to the clinic.

Dr. Hwu and I worked closely together at the NCI for 13 years. He is one of those rare visionaries when it comes to expanding the frontiers of cancer medicine, said Steven A. Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., head of the Tumor Immunology Section and chief of the Surgery Branch at the National Cancer Institutes Center for Cancer Research. He is a brilliant scientist and leader. I congratulate him on this important position and look forward to working with him in his new leadership role at MD Anderson.

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Image: Human endothelial cells experiment bound for ISS

Posted: February 26, 2015 at 12:58 am

16 hours ago Credit: Scuola Superiore SantAnna, Pisa, Italy

Components of human endothelial cells stained for identification. In red is the 'actin' protein that allows the cells to move, adhere, divide and react to stimuli. In blue are the cell nuclei containing DNA.

The Endothelial Cells experiment will fly to the International Space Station this year to understand how the cells that line our blood vessels react to weightlessness. Endothelial cells contain our blood and contract or expand our blood vessels as needed, regulating the flow of blood to our organs.

Blood flow changes in space because gravity no longer pulls blood towards astronauts' feet. By understanding the underlying adaptive mechanisms of how our bodies respond to weightlessness, this experiment aims to develop methods to help astronauts in space while showing possibilities for people on Earth our endothelial cells become less effective with age to live longer and healthier lives.

Cultured human endothelial cells will be grown in space in ESA's Kubik incubator for two weeks and then 'freeze' them chemically for analysis back on Earth.

For the team behind this experiment getting the experiment setup to work in space was challenging. "What is routine in laboratory is difficult in space" explains project leader Debora Angeloni from Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (one of the three Universities of Pisa, Italy), "in space we have less samples to work with and the experiment needs to be self-contained."

The final experiment sits in the palm of your hand and is fully-automated and controlled electronically without the need to use up precious astronaut time.

"We expect the cells to express different genes, and to attach and move differently due to their trip in space. Among other things, the red-stained actin in this photo taken in preparation in our laboratory on Earth will be compared to the samples when they return from space."

Explore further: Blood vessel cells improve the conversion of pluripotent stem cells to blood lineages

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) can differentiate into all of the different types of cells that comprise the blood and immune cell lineages. HSC transplantation is the only effective treatment for certain blood disorders; ...

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Culture Clash: How Stem Cells Are Grown Affects Their Genetic Stability

Posted: February 26, 2015 at 12:51 am

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Newswise The therapeutic promise of human stem cells is indisputably huge, but the process of translating their potential into effective, real-world treatments involves deciphering and resolving a host of daunting complexities.

Writing in the February 25 online issue of the journal PLOS ONE, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, with collaborators from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), have definitively shown for the first time that the culture conditions in which stem cells are grown and mass-produced can affect their genetic stability.

Since genetic and epigenetic instability are associated with cancers, we worry that similar alterations in stem cells may affect their safety in therapeutic transplants. Certain mutations might make transplanted stem cells more likely to form tumors, introducing the risk of cancer where it didnt exist before, said co-corresponding author Louise Laurent, MD, PhD, assistant professor and director of perinatal research in the Department of Reproductive Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

This study shows the importance of quality control, added Jeanne F. Loring, PhD, professor and director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at TSRI, and adjunct professor in the UC San Diego Department of Reproductive Medicine and the studys other co-corresponding author. Its almost certain these cells are safe, but we want to make sure they are free from any abnormalities.

To exploit the transformative powers of human pluripotent stem cells, which include embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, requires producing them in large numbers for transplantation into patients.

During this culturing process, mutations can occur, and mutations that increase cell survival or proliferation may be favored, such that the cells carrying such mutations could take over the culture, said Laurent.

Human pluripotent stem cells are cultured in several different ways. Key variables are the surfaces upon which the cells are cultured, called the substrate, and the methods used to transfer cells from one culture dish into another as they grow, called the passage method.

Originally, scientists determined that stem cells grew best when cultured atop of a feeder layer that included other types of cells, such as irradiated mouse embryonic fibroblasts. For reasons not fully understood, these cells provide stem cells with factors that support their growth. However, concerns about the feeder cells also introducing undesirable materials into stem cells has prompted development of feeder-free cultures.

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Researchers Hone in on Stem Cell that Speeds Healing of Stubborn Diabetes Wounds

Posted: February 26, 2015 at 12:45 am

Durham, NC (PRWEB) February 25, 2015

A new study published in the latest issue of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine reveals how a particular type of stem cell generated from fat tissue may outperform other types of stem cells in speeding up the healing of wounds caused by type 1 diabetes. In the study, ulcers in a mice model treated with these cells healed significantly faster than those treated with general types of stem cells.

Slow-healing wounds present one of the most common and perplexing complications associated with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. If left untreated, they can lead to amputation, and even death. In fact, diabetes is the leading cause of non-traumatic lower limb amputation in the United States, according to the American Diabetes Association. Despite this, there are very few consistently effective treatments for speeding the wound-healing process in patients.

Addressing this issue, researchers at the University of Tokyo (UT) School of Medicine partnered with colleagues at the Research Center for Stem Cell Engineering, National Institute for Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Ibaraki, Japan) to test whether a type of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) called Muse, which is harvested from adult adipose tissue (that is, fat), might work better than other types of MSCs in treating diabetes wounds. Previous studies had shown that Muse which stands for multilineage differentiating stress-enduring cells do not have high proliferative activity, but they do generate multiple cell types of the three germ layers without inducing unfavorable tumors. Thus, Muse cells appear to be safer than other induced pluripotent or multipotent cells and might have better therapeutic potential than general (non-Muse) MSCs.

The study details how researchers isolated the Muse cells from human tissue and then injected them into skin ulcers in diabetic mice. Study leader Kotaro Yoshimura, M.D., of UTs Department of Plastic Surgery said that, After 14 days the mice treated with Muse-rich cells showed significantly accelerated wound healing compared to those treated with Muse-poor cells. The transplanted cells were integrated into the regenerated skin as vascular endothelial cells and other cells. However, they were not detected in the surrounding intact regions.

In fact, not only had the wounds of the mice treated with the Muse cells completely healed after the 14-day period, but the healed skin was thicker than that of the non-Muse treated wounds, too.

Were not sure yet why the Muse cells seem to work better, Dr. Yoshimura stated, but they expressed upregulated pluripotency markers and some angiogenic growth factors, and our animal results certainly suggest a clinical potential for them in the future. These cells can be achieved in large amounts with minimal morbidity and could be a practical tool for a variety of stem cell-depleted or ischemic conditions of various organs and tissues.

Fat tissue has been gaining attention as a practical source of adult stem cells, said Anthony Atala, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. This study suggests the future clinical potential for Muse cells.

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The full article, Therapeutic Potential of Adipose-Derived SSEA-3-Positive Muse Cells for Treating Diabetic Skin Ulcers, can be accessed at http://www.stemcellstm.com.

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Rowan Researcher Targets Stem Cell-Based Therapy for Rare Childhood Disease

Posted: February 26, 2015 at 12:42 am

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Newswise STRATFORD Paola Leone, PhD, the director of the Cell and Gene Therapy Center and a professor of Cell Biology at the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine (RowanSOM), has been awarded a three-year, $477,000 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to develop a stem cell-based therapy for Canavan disease, a rare but devastating neurological disorder in children that typically takes a childs life by age 10.

Canavan disease is a fatal, inherited disease caused by a mutation in the aspartaocylase gene, Dr. Leone explained. The disease is characterized by progressive and severe brain atrophy that manifests in delayed development, developmental regression, microcephaly, spasticity, seizures, visual impairment and short life expectancy. There, currently, is no treatment or cure for Canavan disease.

Under Dr. Leones direction, a team of RowanSOM researchers and students will examine the potential of stem cells for the treatment of Canavan disease in an animal model. This new study will build on the research teams preliminary data that demonstrated the successful engraftment of stem cells in animal models.

Our project will generate pre-clinical data to support the development of a stem-cell based therapy for Canavan disease, Dr. Leone said. It will also provide an important opportunity for a new generation of clinical researchers. Both undergraduate and graduate students will participate in this project, providing them with valuable experience to work with an extremely promising therapeutic intervention.

The symptoms of Canavan disease usually appear within the first six months of a childs life. The disease is caused by a genetic mutation that stops cells, called oligodendrocytes, from developing myelin, the fatty substance that coats the nerves in the brain. Without the protective myelin covering, the nerves do not form properly, causing the brain to atrophy. The preliminary research that Dr. Leone conducted showed that the engraftment of stem cells promoted significant recovery of the myelin sheath surrounding the nerves.

Our research represents a significant departure from other studies that have focused solely on strategies to augment the loss of the aspartaocylase function that is highly reduced in the brains of these patients, Dr. Leone said. We believe that any strategy seeking to treat Canavan must include a way to restore the myelin development that is disrupted in children with this disease.

This research is supported by the NINDS of the National Institutes of Health, under grant number 1R15NS088763-01A1.

Journalists wishing to speak with Dr. Leone, should contact Jerry Carey, Rowan University Media and Public Relations at 856-566-6171 or at careyge@rowan.edu.

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New Study Shows Safer Methods for Stem Cell Culturing

Posted: February 26, 2015 at 12:41 am

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Newswise LA JOLLA, CA February 25, 2015 A new study led by researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and the University of California (UC), San Diego School of Medicine shows that certain stem cell culture methods are associated with increased DNA mutations. The study points researchers toward safer and more robust methods of growing stem cells to treat disease and injury.

This is about quality control; were making sure these cells are safe and effective, said Jeanne Loring, a professor of developmental neurobiology at TSRI and senior author of the study with Louise Laurent, assistant professor at UC San Diego.

Laurent added, The processes used to maintain and expand stem cell cultures for cell replacement therapies needs to be improved, and the resulting cells carefully tested before use.

The findings were published February 25 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

Growing Stem Cells

Because these human stem cells, called "pluripotent stem cells," can differentiate into many types of cells, they could be key to reversing degenerative diseases, such as Parkinsons disease, or repairing injured tissue, such as cardiac muscle after a heart attack. Stem cells are relatively rare in the body, however, so researchers must culture them in dishes.

While all cells run the risk of mutating when they divide, previous research from Loring and her colleagues suggested that stem cell culturing may select for mutations that favor faster cell growth and are sometimes associated with tumors.

Most changes will not compromise the safety of the cells for therapy, but we need to monitor the cultures so that we know what sorts of changes take place, said the papers first author Ibon Garitaonandia, a postdoctoral researcher working in Lorings lab at the time of the study.

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