An early-phase clinical trial of an experimental vaccine that targets cancer stem cells in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and aggressive malignant brain tumor, has been launched by researchers at Cedars-Sinai's Department of Neurosurgery, Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Brain Tumor Center and Department of Neurology.

Like normal stem cells, cancer stem cells have the ability to self-renew and generate new cells, but instead of producing healthy cells, they create cancer cells. In theory, if the cancer stem cells can be destroyed, a tumor may not be able to sustain itself, but if the cancer originators are not removed or destroyed, a tumor will continue to return despite the use of existing cancer-killing therapies.

The Phase I study, which will enroll about 45 patients and last two years, evaluates safety and dosing of a vaccine created individually for each participant and designed to boost the immune system's natural ability to protect the body against foreign invaders called antigens. The drug targets a protein, CD133, found on cancer stem cells of some brain tumors and other cancers.

Immune system cells called dendritic cells will be derived from each patient's blood, combined with commercially prepared glioblastoma proteins and grown in the laboratory before being injected under the skin as a vaccine weekly for four weeks and then once every two months, according to Jeremy Rudnick, MD, neuro-oncologist in the Cedars-Sinai Department of Neurosurgery and Department of Neurology, the study's principal investigator.

Dendritic cells are the immune system's most powerful antigen-presenting cells -- those responsible for helping the immune system recognize invaders. By being loaded with specific protein fragments of CD133, the dendritic cells become "trained" to recognize the antigen as a target and stimulate an immune response when they come in contact.

The cancer stem cell study is the latest evolution in Cedars-Sinai's history of dendritic cell vaccine research, which was introduced experimentally in patient trials in 1998.

Cedars-Sinai's brain cancer stem cell study is open to patients whose glioblastoma multiforme has returned following surgical removal. Potential participants will be screened for eligibility requirements and undergo evaluations and medical tests at regular intervals. The vaccine and study-related tests and follow-up care will be provided at no cost to patients. For more information, call 1-800-CEDARS-1 or contact Cherry Sanchez by phone at 310-423-8100 or email cherry.sanchez@cshs.org.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Original post:
Clinical trial studies vaccine targeting cancer stem cells in brain cancers

Dr. Edward Ross, with the University of Florida College of Medicine's Division of Nephrology, Hypertension and Renal Transplantation, talks about his research Thursday, January 16, 2014. Ross and his team are using pig kidneys as a scaffold or blueprint to someday recreate a human kidney.

In the ground-floor labyrinth that connects UF Health Shands Hospital to the UF health sciences campus, a handful of scientists are super excited about research that one day could mean the end of long waiting lines for kidney transplant patients.

The promise lies in a soft sponge-like structure that is about the size of a bar of soap and is considered a "scaffold" for building healthy human kidneys.

The soap-sized structure is a baby pig's kidney, drained of its blood and cells. Over the course of three days, chemicals strip the kidney of swine cells so it can be injected with human stem cells.

The idea of using stem cells to grow new organs is not new. Scientists have been plugging away at it for two decades, said Dr. Edward Ross, a nephrologist and professor of medicine at UF Health.

"The dream of taking patients' stem cells and growing an organ never came to fruition," Ross said. "Short of growing the organ de novo is (the idea) to somehow nudge the cells along to some sort of biological scaffold from a creature."

Pigs' kidneys are similar to those of humans in size and basic anatomy, so scientists have been studying the concept of using the pig's kidney as a scaffold. They also have experimented with rabbits and rats.

Scientists also have successfully grown human stem cells with other, "easier" organs such as the bladder and trachea, Ross said.

"(The kidney) is one of the most difficult because of the complexity of the organ," he said.

The scaffold is not, however, just an inert skeleton. It contains proteins with chemical signals that guide human stem cells once they are implanted, or "seeded," inside the scaffold. The kidney contains 30 different cell types, so the stem cells can differentiate into these types once inside the scaffold.

See more here:
UF working to grow transplant kidneys from stem cells