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NYSCF scientists one step closer to cell therapy for multiple sclerosis patients

By Uncategorized

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Jul-2014

Contact: David McKeon dmckeon@nyscf.org 212-365-7440 New York Stem Cell Foundation

NEW YORK, NY (July 24, 2014) Scientists at The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute are one step closer to creating a viable cell replacement therapy for multiple sclerosis from a patient's own cells.

For the first time, NYSCF scientists generated induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells lines from skin samples of patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis and further, they developed an accelerated protocol to induce these stem cells into becoming oligodendrocytes, the myelin-forming cells of the central nervous system implicated in multiple sclerosis and many other diseases.

Existing protocols for producing oligodendrocytes had taken almost half a year to produce, limiting the ability of researchers to conduct their research. This study has cut that time approximately in half, making the ability to utilize these cells in research much more feasible.

Stem cell lines and oligodendrocytes allow researchers to "turn back the clock" and observe how multiple sclerosis develops and progresses, potentially revealing the onset of the disease at a cellular level long before any symptoms are displayed. The improved protocol for deriving oligodendrocyte cells will also provide a platform for disease modeling, drug screening, and for replacing the damaged cells in the brain with healthy cells generated using this method.

"We are so close to finding new treatments and even cures for MS. The enhanced ability to derive the cells implicated in the disease will undoubtedly accelerate research for MS and many other diseases," said Susan L. Solomon, NYSCF Chief Executive Officer.

"We believe that this protocol will help the MS field and the larger scientific community to better understand human oligodendrocyte biology and the process of myelination. This is the first step towards very exciting studies: the ability to generate human oligodendrocytes in large amounts will serve as an unprecedented tool for developing remyelinating strategies and the study of patient-specific cells may shed light on intrinsic pathogenic mechanisms that lead to progressive MS". said Dr. Valentina Fossati, NYSCF Helmsley Investigator and senior author on the paper.

In multiple sclerosis, the protective covering of axons, called myelin, becomes damaged and lost. In this study, the scientists not only improved the protocol for making the myelin-forming cells but they showed that the oligodendrocytes derived from the skin of primary progressive patients are functional, and therefore able to form their own myelin when put into a mouse model. This is an initial step towards developing future autologous cell transplantation therapies in multiple sclerosis patients

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NYSCF scientists one step closer to cell therapy for multiple sclerosis patients

MS stem cell therapy treatment hope for mum

By Uncategorized

July 24, 2014, 10:29 p.m.

A 60 MINUTES report on new multiple sclerosis stem cell therapy has thrown Wendouree mum Kathryn Johnston a potential lifeline.

A 60 MINUTES report on new multiple sclerosis stem cell therapy has thrown Wendouree mum Kathryn Johnston a potential lifeline.

Hopeful: Wendouree mum Kathryn Johnston is hoping new stem cell therapy treatment will help her be a more active mother to her daughter Dellah, 7. PICTURE: KATE HEALY

Ms Johnston, who has had MS for 15 years, is hoping the treatment will help her be a more active mother to daughter Dellah, 7.

I cant do a great deal with my daughter now but its also the unknown not knowing if Ill wake up one day and not be able to walk, Ms Johnston said.

The 35-year-old emergency nurse hopes to travel to Russia in August next year for the treatment, which involves extracting her stem cells, freezing them while she undergoes a strong course of chemotherapy and then replacing them.

It gets rid of any underlying MS and rebuilds the immune system from scratch. As a general rule, its been about 80 per cent effective.

Ms Johnston first noticed her MS symptoms as an active Ararat 20-year-old doing her nursing degree and about to marry her childhood sweetheart Andrew.

I developed numbness in both hands but thought Id just slept on them until my tummy went numb too.

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MS stem cell therapy treatment hope for mum

Experiments prove 'stemness' of individual immune memory cells

By Uncategorized

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Jul-2014

Contact: Vera Siegler vera.siegler@tum.de 49-892-892-2731 Technische Universitaet Muenchen

This news release is available in German.

The immune system has evolved to recognize and respond to threats to health, and to provide life-long memory that prevents recurrent disease. A detailed understanding of the mechanism underlying immunologic memory, however, has remained elusive. Since 2001, various lines of research have converged to support the hypothesis that the persistence of immune memory arises from a reservoir of immune cells with stem-cell-like potential. Until now, there was no conclusive evidence, largely because experiments could only be carried out on populations of cells. This first strict test of the stem cell hypothesis of immune memory was based on mapping the fates of individual T cells and their descendants over several generations.

That experimental capability was developed through a long-term collaboration, focused on clinical cell processing and purification, between researchers based in Munich and Seattle. Since 2009, the groups of Prof. Dirk Busch at the Technische Universitt Mnchen (TUM) and Prof. Stanley Riddell at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have combined their technological and clinical expertise under the auspices of the TUM Institute for Advanced Study. The University of Heidelberg, the University of Dsseldorf, the Helmholtz Center Munich, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), and the National Center for Infection Research (DZIF) also contributed to the present study.

Homing In On The "Stemness" of T Cells

After generating an immune response in laboratory animals, TUM researchers Patricia Graef and Veit Buchholz separated complex "killer" T cell populations enlisted to fight the immediate or recurring infection. Within these cell populations, they then identified subgroups and proceeded with a series of single-cell adoptive transfer experiments, in which the aftermath of immune responses could be analyzed in detail. Here the ability to identify and characterize the descendants of individual T cells through several generations was crucial.

The researchers first established that a high potential for expansion and differentiation in a defined subpopulation, called "central memory T cells," does not depend exclusively on any special source such as bone marrow, lymph nodes, or spleen. This supported but did not yet prove the idea that certain central memory T cells are, effectively, adult stem cells. Further experiments, using and comparing both memory T cells and so-called naive T cells that is, mature immune cells that have not yet encountered their antigen enabled the scientists to home in on stem-cell-like characteristics and eliminate other possible explanations.

Step by step, the results strengthened the case that the persistence of immune memory depends on the "stemness" of the subpopulation of T cells termed central memory T cells: Individual central memory T cells proved to be "multipotent," meaning that they can generate diverse types of offspring to fight an infection and to remember the antagonist. Further, these individual T cells self-renew into secondary memory T cells that are, again, multipotent at the single-cell level. And finally, individual descendants of secondary memory T cells are capable of fully restoring the capacity for a normal immune response.

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Experiments prove 'stemness' of individual immune memory cells

Stem cell therapy could lead to HIV cure – SFGate

By Stem Cell Doctors

Two teams of scientists with strong ties to the Bay Area are racing to develop a stem cell therapy that would provide a practical cure for people living with HIV infection, leaving them with an immune system capable of keeping them healthy without daily medication even as some virus remains circulating in their bloodstream.

Both groups of researchers are trying to capitalize on the DNA of so-called elite controllers - people who are naturally resistant to HIV due to a genetic mutation that prevents the virus from latching on to their immune cells. It was an elite controller who donated bone marrow to Timothy Brown, the "Berlin patient," who was the first in the world to be cured of HIV. Doctors attribute Brown's rebuilt HIV-resistant immune system to the genetic mutation in the bone marrow.

Bone marrow transplants are not an effective cure for HIV for the general population because they're risky and expensive. But stem cells, drawn from a patient's own bone marrow and altered to be HIV-resistant, may be able to do the job using the same premise.

"If you could make a person's immune system mutated in a way that HIV could not infect it, then you may be able to cure the HIV," said Dr. John Zaia, a virologist with the Beckman Research Institute near Los Angeles, who's working with Sangamo Biosciences in Richmond on a technique to engineer and transplant stem cells.

"That's the premise anyway," he said. "And it's based on that one case in the Berlin, that one transplant."

The teams at the forefront of stem cell HIV therapy are led by Sangamo and Calimmune, a San Diego company that is testing its treatment in patients in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Calimmune was the first to start human clinical trials, in July 2013, and last month reported that the first group of patients was doing well enough that they were ready to begin treating a second group. Sangamo expects to start clinical trials as early as this fall.

Both groups are being funded in part by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state's stem cell agency.

The research is based on the discovery in the mid-1990s of a specific genetic mutation that blocks a protein called CCR5. The protein is found on the surface of some cells where it acts as a receptor, allowing HIV to attach and ultimately fuse with the cell. Without CCR5, it's much more difficult, although not impossible, for the virus to infect a cell.

In elite controllers, the CCR5 receptor is mutated in such a way that HIV cannot latch onto it. Scientists believe that only about 1 percent of people worldwide have the CCR5 genetic mutation.

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Stem cell therapy could lead to HIV cure - SFGate

Stem Cells: Promises and Reality

By Stem Cell Medicine

Renowned Israeli stem-cell researcher in Fairfield Aug. 6

By Cindy Mindell

Dr. Yaqub Hanna

A leading Israeli scientist who has pioneered groundbreaking stem-cell reprogamming research will discuss his work on Wednesday, Aug. 6 at Jewish Senior Services in Fairfield.

Together with a team of researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science Department of Molecular Genetics in Rehovot, Israel, Dr. Jacob (Yaqub) Hanna has overcome a major roadblock in the use of human stem cells for medical purposes. Funded by a grant from the Israel Cancer Research Fund, their pioneering breakthrough was recently published in the peer-reviewed international science journal, Nature.

Its not only Hannas work that is note-worthy: the award-winning research scientist is a Palestinian living in Israel, a native of Kafr Rama in the Galilee and the son of two medical doctors.

Hanna earned a BS in medical sciences summa cum laude in 2001, an MS in microbiology and immunology in 2003, and a PhD-MD in immunology summa cum laude in 2007, all from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he was among the top five percent of all Israeli medical-school graduates. After completing his PhD, Hanna decided to abandon clinical medicine and focus on research, and spent four years conducting postdoctoral research in the lab, part of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT.

During his postdoctoral work, Hanna was the first non-American to receive a prestigious Novartis Fellowship from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation. He joined the Weizmann Institute Department of Molecular Genetics upon his return to Israel in 2011. That year, he received the Clore Prize for distinguished new faculty at the Weizmann Institute and was accepted as a Yigal Alon Program Scholar for junior faculty in Israel. He is also the recipient of the Wolf Foundations Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research and the 2013 Rappaport Prize in Biomedical Research.

Hanna has had to find a way to navigate between his personal and professional identities.

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Stem Cells: Promises and Reality

Local Denver Skin Care Company Releases Safer Alternative to Botox

By Stem Cell Treatment

Denver, CO (PRWEB) July 23, 2014

Daily Face & Body is excited to announce that they have released a cheaper and safer alternative to Botox called Stem Cell Technology Facial Serum.

Stem Cell Technology Facial Serum is an anti-aging product used to help people smooth, tone, and rejuvenate dead skin cells..

Stem Cell Technology Facial Serum can be used as a safe alternative to Botox, a popular cosmetic injection, because the Stem Cell does not have any toxins or health risks as opposed to Botox. In addition, it is Alcohol, Ammonia, Paraben, Perfume, and Sulfate free, and it has not been tested on Animals.

According to the Daily Face & Body website, their Stem Cell Technology Facial Serum uses 100% active plant stem cell ingredient (All Even Sweet Iris) which has been clinically tested to reduce wrinkles with overall anti-aging effects.

Jason Palmer, a representative of Daily Face & Body, says that the clinical test results showed that after 28 days of treatment, 84% of women noted their wrinkles seem to have decreased. It also decreased the total surface by 35%, decreased the number of wrinkles by 26%, and decreased the length of wrinkles by 33%.

Ingredients The ingredients in Stem Cell Technology Facial serum are as follows:

Active ingredient: All Even Sweet Irs (Iris pallida). The other ingredients are: Water, Cyclomethicone, Avena sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract, Cichorium Intybus (Chicory) Root, Oligosaccharides (and) Glycerin (and) Caesalpinia Spinosa Gum, Dimethicone, Iris Pallida Leaf Cell Extract, Lauramidoyl Inulin, Oleth-10, Carbomer, Phenoxyethanol (and) Ethylhexylglycerin, Potassium Sorbate, Tromethamine.

About Daily Face & Body is a locally owned Denver company that has been operating since 2012. They sell Skin Care products and accessories as well as home Spa therapy products and weight loss supplements. To receive more information about Daily Face & Body please visit their website http://www.dailyfaceandbody.com.

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Local Denver Skin Care Company Releases Safer Alternative to Botox

Justice minister won't interfere with Stamina court decision

By Stem Cell Treatment

'Ministry can't interfere with judges' Orlando tells Senate

(ANSA) - Rome, July 23 - Justice Minister Andrea Orlando told the Senate health committee Wednesday that the ministry can't interfere with a court ruling that forced a hospital to administer the controversial Stamina stem-cell treatment to an ailing boy. His statement came after a court ordered the treatment administered to a child suffering from muscular dystrophy at a hospital in northern Italy on Tuesday, despite the fact that it has been discredited by many in the scientific community. The Stamina treatment was administered on the orders of a Sicilian court after the hospital in Brescia decided to suspend the procedure because it had been called into doubt. The justice ministry "cannot interfere with the court's decisions. The judge has freedom of interpretation," Orlando told MPs. "However, no amount of court rulings can fill what is a legislative void on this issue," he added. The credibility of the Stamina treatment - which involves extracting bone-marrow stem cells from a patient, supposedly turning them into neurons by exposing them to retinoic acid for two hours, and injecting them back into the patient - has long been suspect, and last autumn the health ministry ruled that the Stamina Foundation would no longer be allowed to test the treatment on humans. The foundation was also stripped of its non-profit status after a study found the treatment was "ignorant of stem-cell biology". However some local judges have ruled in favor of its application amid heavy pressure from advocates and the families of patients. So far only courts in Genoa and Turin have denied access to the treatment, the justice minister pointed out. Also on Wednesday, privacy watchdog agency director Antonello Soro testified at the same committee hearing that sensationalized media reports featuring prominently displayed images of terminally ill children have clouded the issue of whether or not the treatment is scientifically valid. "Media have too often given in to the temptation of...exploiting the image of sick children," Soro said. "The right of ill minors not to have their disease put on display has been violated...especially by online media," he added.

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Justice minister won't interfere with Stamina court decision

ASH honors Scott Armstrong, M.D., Ph.D., with 2014 William Dameshek Prize

By Stem Cell Medical Center

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

22-Jul-2014

Contact: Amanda Szabo aszabo@hematology.org 202-552-4914 American Society of Hematology

(WASHINGTON, July 22, 2014)The American Society of Hematology will present the 2014 William Dameshek Prize to Scott Armstrong, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for his exceptional work in leukemia research and cancer stem cell biology.

This prize, named after the late William Dameshek, MD, a renowned hematologist, past president of ASH, and the first editor of the Society's journal Blood, recognizes an individual who has made a recent, outstanding contribution to the field of hematology. Dr. Armstrong will accept his award at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, December 9, during the 56th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Francisco.

Dr. Armstrong is the Director of the Leukemia Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), where he also serves as Vice Chair for Basic and Translational Research in Pediatrics and as a full member of the MSK Cancer Biology and Genetics Program. His research focuses on the biology and epigenetics of a class of leukemias initiated by mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) gene translocations. Throughout his career, Dr. Armstrong has sought to uncover unique insights into the origin and properties of cancer stem cells, the signaling pathways sustaining cancer cell self-renewal, and the epigenetic mechanisms dependent on MLL-fusion oncogenes.

In 2002 Dr. Armstrong published a seminal paper in Nature Genetics demonstrating that MLLs exhibited a unique expression signature. In subsequent papers published in Cancer Cell in 2003 and Blood in 2004, Dr. Armstrong described how the FMS-like tyrosine kinase-3 (FLT3) is highly expressed and often mutated in MLLs. Dr. Armstrong's findings, in conjunction with the work of others, have led to clinical trials of FLT3 in various forms of leukemia. Over the past several years, Dr. Armstrong has extended his elegant study of MLL-rearranged leukemic stem cells in several publications, including Nature, Science, Cancer Cell, and Blood, all while taking advantage of rapidly developing technologies in the fields of genomics, epigenetics, and stem cell biology in a quest to yield new therapies for leukemia.

Dr. Armstrong began his medical career in 1996 after earning his MD and PhD from the University of Texas Southwestern, where he trained with Nobel Laureates Joseph Goldstein, MD, and Michael Brown, MD. After completing a residency in pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital and a clinical fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Dr. Armstrong held a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of the late Stanley Korsmeyer, MD, at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he studied the molecular basis of infant leukemias instigated by MLL gene translocations. Following his postdoctoral training, Dr. Armstrong served as an attending and principal investigator in the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute pediatric hematology/oncology program, launching an independent laboratory to study the molecular genetics and therapeutics of leukemia and particularly MLL-rearranged disease, where he remained until he was recruited to MSK in 2012.

In addition to his membership to ASH, Dr. Armstrong is a member of the Society of Pediatric Research, the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, the Society for Hematology and Stem Cells, and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. His recent awards include the American Pediatric Society and Society for Pediatric Research E. Mead Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, and the International Society of Experimental Hematology McCulloch and Till Award. Earlier this year, Dr. Armstrong was awarded the Frank A. Oski Memorial Award from the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and was elected to the Association of American Physicians.

"ASH is pleased to honor Dr. Armstrong for his pioneering research in the fields of genomics and stem cell biology that is helping to fuel new therapies for patients diagnosed with devastating leukemias," said ASH President Linda J. Burns, MD, of the University of Minnesota. "His leadership and landmark discoveries in the fields of cancer stem cells and leukemia will undoubtedly leave a lasting imprint on contemporary cancer research."

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ASH honors Scott Armstrong, M.D., Ph.D., with 2014 William Dameshek Prize

Controversial Staminia treatment carried out on sick boy

By Stem Cell Treatment

Brescia hospital ordered to let discredited therapy resume

(ANSA) - Brescia, July 22 - A controversial stem-cell treatment was administered to a child suffering from muscular dystrophy at a hospital in northern Italy on Tuesday despite having been discredited. The Stamina treatment was administered on the orders of a Sicilian court after the hospital in Brescia decided to suspend the procedure on the boy suffering from Duchenne muscula dystrophy because it had been called into doubt. The child "will remain in observation for a few hours and we will carry out a few tests," said Giuseppe Morfino, the court-appointed doctor leading the external team that performed the treatment. Morfino added that the atmosphere at the hospital had been cooperative. The credibility of the Stamina treatment, which involves extracting bone-marrow stem cells from a patient, supposedly turning them into neurons by exposing them to retinoic acid for two hours, and injecting them back into the patient, has long been suspect, and last autumn the health ministry ruled that the Stamina Foundation would no longer be allowed to test the treatment on humans. The foundation was also stripped of its non-profit status after a study found its treatment was "ignorant of stem-cell biology". Recent investigations have shown risks of the treatment range from nausea to cancer, and reported that as many as one-quarter of all patients treated have experienced "adverse effects". In April, after study results became known, hospitals in Italy announced they had suspended the stem-cell treatment program. However, some local judges have ruled in favor of its application, despite the bans, amid heavy pressure from advocates and the families of patients.

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Controversial Staminia treatment carried out on sick boy

Arthritis Alleviated: MetroMD Introduces Latest in Stem Cell Therapy in LA; Promises to be Especially Helpful for …

By Stem Cell Treatment

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) July 22, 2014

MetroMD, one of the leading names in regenerative medicines in all of California and one of the greatest proponents of holistic health services, now brings a reason to rejoice for individuals long suffering from debilitating arthritis. As per a report published on March 6 2013, by The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery on The US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health (Ref: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3748969/), on an average, around 500,000 revision of knee replacement surgeries were recorded in the US - with the prime reason being osteoarthritis in majority of these cases. And If Mr. Devin Stone, MetroMDs Operations Director is to be believed, the cumulative cost of the treatment is estimated to be around $50 billion every year.

The cost covers hospitals bills, doctors visits, medicine, etc and makes arthritic treatment, which often requires a repeat procedure, a hugely burdensome endeavor. But the fact is, even after spending so much of money, one is not sure about getting fully relieved from the agony that arthritis brings to ones life. Arthritis appears in many forms and the expresses itself as joint pain, stiffness and limited body movement in a patient, says Dr Alex Martin, MD, MetroMDs Director of Medicines. MetroMD, ensures that patients can put aside all these concerns and enjoy complete healing that only an advanced Stem cell therapy for arthritis can promise, says Dr. Martin highlighting the fact regarding how pocket-friendly the treatment is. One can regain a healthy knee, while retaining the health of his/her money bag now with MetroMDs stem cell therapy.

How does MetroMDs Stem cell therapy Work?

MetroMDs stem cell treatment process includes extraction of healthy bone marrow out of the patients body by experts and placing it in a centrifuge. After segregating various elements of blood, the stem cell is isolated and placed with cellular growth promoters (found in platelets). All of these are then inserted into the part of the body, ensuring a quicker tissue-based healing.

Mr. Devin Stone exuded confidence in mentioning that MetroMDs stem cell therapies come as a great alternative to invasive surgeries - making way for easier and quicker knee replacements and arthritic treatment.

Is the stem cell therapy safe?

Dr. Alex Martin says, If you are suffering from chronic joint paint due to arthritis, surgery is not anymore the only answer. Stem Cell Therapy can provide an amazing alternative, where your own cells are used to promote healing inside your body. Medicine has advanced significantly in the last 15 years and persistence with the techniques that were pioneered over two decades ago is illogical- and newer and less invasive procedures are the future of medicine.

Backed by the fact that stem cell treatment is a minimally invasive procedure requiring little or no hospitalization, Dr Martins and MetroMDs stance towards propagating stem cell therapy looks only logical. The procedure is legal and the therapy rendered by MetroMD is in compliance with CFR 21 part 1271 standards. Being a non surgical process, evidently, its the safest and totally side-effect free process.

Dr. Martin welcomes the residents of LA suffering from debilitating arthritic condition to consult an expert at its branches spread across in several parts of Los Angeles - and enjoy an improved quality of life.

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Arthritis Alleviated: MetroMD Introduces Latest in Stem Cell Therapy in LA; Promises to be Especially Helpful for ...

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