Stem cell research benefits area woman with multiple sclerosis

By adminApril 5, 2015Stem Cell Doctors

HOUSTON -

It's a debate that puts many people's religious beliefs at odds with science.

Medical breakthroughs have allowed doctors to use human stem cells to treat chronic diseases with incredible results. But even patients who benefit have reservations about how stem cells are harvested.

Multiple sclerosis is a debilitating, progressive disease that typically only gets worse once a patient is diagnosed. But much to the surprise of many doctors, patient Debbie Bertrand's symptoms have improved instead of regressing.

"The last time I walked into this building, I had to use the wheelchair," Bertrand said. "I couldn't even walk, so this is a big day for me."

Bertrand uses a walker to visit Celltex -- a Houston company that has been preserving her stem cells since 2011. She was one of the first patients to receive breakthrough treatments using stem cells taken from fat cells, which are then reinjected into her body.

"I had pretty high expectations, but I think they've exceeded anything I could've ever hoped for," Bertrand said. "My doctors are still blown away because you're never supposed to get better when you have MS. But my quality of life is just so much better."

Bertrand's experience is not unique. The company said stem cell injections have helped people with joint diseases and Parkinson's.

CEO David Eller said he was healed of knee pain.

"We're happy that it's working and we're happy for people like Debbie Bertrand," Eller said. "A lot of people don't have the time to wait 10 years and find out if it's going to be legal or not."

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Stem cell research benefits area woman with multiple sclerosis

Wyatt-MacKenzie Spring 2015 An Illustrated Biography of Jane Austen and Two Health-Related Re-Releases on Getting …

By adminApril 5, 2015Stem Cell Doctors

Deadwood, OR (PRWEB) April 04, 2015

New 2015 Release

What was Jane Austen like as a child? What inspired her to write?

Young Jane Austen: Becoming a Writer is a colorful new biography with a special focus on Austens creative development during her childhood and the connections to her work as a mature writer. Drawing upon a wide array of sources, including Austens own books and correspondence, author Lisa Pliscou illuminates the life of the youthful Jane and the fascinating connections to her much-loved writing. Lavishly annotated, designed with an evocative antique sensibility, and featuring 20 specially commissioned illustrations, Young Jane Austen is sure to intrigue anyone interested in Jane Austen, her enduring legacy, and the triumph of the artistic spirit.

It is adorable, raved The NYC Jane Austen Society upon receiving an advance review copy. Like the very best of books, Young Jane Austen exists well beyond labels. It is an empathetic biography and an empathic search, a reflection on a singular person and an engaging, universal treatise on creative fervor, reviews Beth Kephart, author of Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir and Going Over.

Young Jane Austen is described eloquently by Jane Odiwe, author of Searching for Captain Wentworth and Lydia Bennets Story: A delightful glimpse into the world of the young Jane Austen, which will appeal to adults as well as teenagers. The narrative is beautifully written, enabling the reader to vividly imagine Janes world of family, events, and her inner life, on the journey to becoming a writer during her formative years. The addition of annotations and reference material, gained from many sources, help further explore the historical background and context, along with accompanying illustrations, setting Jane Austen firmly in the Georgian world. A charming tribute.

Author Lisa Pliscou will be the keynote speaker at a meeting of the Jane Austen Society of Northern California, celebrating Austens birthday in December. Young Jane Austen will be available via the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, England, as well as through other venues in Bath, and featured at various Jane Austen festivals both in the U.S. and around the world. Learn more at LisaPliscou.com.

Wyatt-MacKenzie Re-Releases

Sandi Selvi proves laughter is good medicine, and that a stem cell transplant can cure MS. Matt Bellace reveals scientifically proven natural highs.

A Stem Cell Transplant MS Recovery Story: Beating Multiple Sclerosis with Humor, Hope & Science originally titled Wont Do Stand-Up in a Wheelchair was re-released with an addendum for the authors 15th anniversary of her successful stem cell transplant. After being diagnosed with MS in 1995, Sandi Selvi began to decline rapidly and quickly became frustrated with conventional medical options. In March of 2000 Sandi joined forces with the brilliant doctors at Scripps in San Diego for a $100,000 autologous stem cell transplant. During the two-month medical procedure Sandi came pretty close to death, but a $10.99 box of comedy tapes helped her through recovery, and changed her life.

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Wyatt-MacKenzie Spring 2015 An Illustrated Biography of Jane Austen and Two Health-Related Re-Releases on Getting ...

Stem cell procedures for paralysis patients

By adminApril 4, 2015Stem Cell Doctors

According to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, nearly one in 50 people are living with paralysis.

Until now, there wasn't much hope.

But, a new study involving stem cells has doctors and patients excited.

Two years ago, Brenda Guerra's life changed forever.

"They told me that I went into a ditch and was ejected out of the vehicle," says Brenda.

The accident left the 26-year-old paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair.

"I don't feel any of my lower body at all," says Brenda.

Brenda has traveled from Kansas to UC San Diego to be the first patient to participate in a ground-breaking safety trial, testing stem cells for paralysis.

"We are directly injecting the stem cells into the spine," says Dr. Joseph Ciacci, a neurosurgeon at UC San Diego.

The stem cells come from fetal spinal cords. The idea is when they're transplanted they will develop into new neurons and bridge the gap created by the injury by replacing severed or lost nerve connections. They did that in animals and doctors are hoping for similar results in humans. The ultimate goal: to help people like Brenda walk again.

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Stem cell procedures for paralysis patients

Dying teenager fighting cancer has just THREE MONTHS to find a bone marrow donor

By adminApril 2, 2015Stem Cell Doctors

A teenage cancer victim has been given just three months to find a bone marrow donor to save his life.

Sixteen year-old Omar Al Shaikh and his mum are desperate to find him a suitable stem cell match and as he is half Romanian, half Arabic, the hunt is more difficult, the Birmingham Mail reports.

His mum Mirabela, 38, who sleeps at his hospital bedside has called for people to join the Anthony Nolan register to help.

I keep crying. He says, stop it, I dont want you to cry any more.

"I am the only parent and I have to be strong, Mirabella said.

Hopes: Omar Al Shaikh, with his mum Mirabela, wants to go to college

Finding a donor is very difficult. Because I am Romanian and Omars father is Arabic, it is a mixture between light and dark.

Omar was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia after passing-out during a football match last Easter.

They told me it may be leukaemia, recalled Subway worker Mirabela.

I shouted, dont tell me that. You dont want to hear that.

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Dying teenager fighting cancer has just THREE MONTHS to find a bone marrow donor

Mother wins competition to have baby's stem cells frozen as an 'insurance policy'

By adminMarch 10, 2015Stem Cell Doctors

Hannah Green's daughter Lola was born with congenital heart disease Mum from Gosport had blood from Lola's cord harvested at birth Her stem cells have been cryogenically frozen for 30 years

By Natalie Brown For Mailonline

Published: 02:42 EST, 2 March 2015 | Updated: 04:28 EST, 2 March 2015

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Hannah Green's 30th birthday is a day she will never forget but not for the reasons you might expect.

At 20 weeks pregnant, it was also the day Hannah, now 31, discovered her unborn daughter Lola had a congenital heart disease and would need open heart surgery as soon as she was born.

With no history of the condition in the family the unexpected news left Hannah and her partner Gerard Bradley, 30, from Gosport, Hampshire, devastated, and Hannah vowed to do everything she could to ensure her daughter had the best start in life.

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Mother wins competition to have baby's stem cells frozen as an 'insurance policy'

Deadly shortage of black stem cell donors

By adminMarch 9, 2015Stem Cell Doctors

Black South Africans make up about 47 percent of all cancer patients but only 5 percent of donors in the nations bone marrow registry. The gap between those who may need bone marrow or stem cell transplants, and those able to provide them has deadly consequences for cancer patients.

Black South Africans make up about 47 percent of all cancer patients but only 5 percent of donors in the nations bone marrow registry

Maphoko Nthane, 50, had experienced mysterious and severe backaches for months. Doctors ran test after test, but could find nothing wrong with Nthane.

I had a severe back ache for months, she told Health-e News. Whenever I would have that pain, I couldnt sit down I had to walk or stand up.

Doctors eventually diagnosed Nthane with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, a severe form of cancer affecting a patients blood and bone marrow.

After I was diagnosed I thought I was going to die I didnt know that people with leukaemia could live, Nthane said. My husband was just as traumatised and as a result he didnt know how to support me.

Nthanes cancer failed to respond to standard chemotherapy and ultimately a stem cell transplant saved her life.

As part of stem cell transplants, stem cells are removed from the tissue of donors or, where possible, patients. These cells are usually from human tissues including bone marrow or fat.

Once removed, the stem cells are given high doses of chemotherapy higher than what could be administered to patients before being transplanted into patients in the hope that they will kill other cancerous cells.

Nthane was lucky to find a stem cell donor.

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Deadly shortage of black stem cell donors

Registries seek to match donors with rising marrow demand

By adminMarch 8, 2015Stem Cell Doctors

WATERTOWN, Conn. (AP) - A year ago, Nancy Demers, 71, was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a deficiency in the bone marrow. The disease can eventually become leukemia.

Its treated as if it were cancer but there is no cure for it, said her son, Scott Demers.

Now Nancy Demers has a new chance at life, thanks to advances in bone marrow stem cell transplants.

If I didnt do this, once I went out of remission - its not if, its when - I would go into acute leukemia and there will be nothing there to help me, Nancy Demers said. This will save my life and give me time.

Demers is one of a rapidly growing number of people looking to depend on strangers to donate marrow since she doesnt have a match within her family.

The rising number of patients seeking bone marrow has created new demands on registries that seek to match patient needs with willing donors.

Each sibling has a 25 percent chance of being a transplant match, according to Dr. Joseph Antin, chief and program director of the adult stem cell transplantation program at Dana Farber Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston.

In the United States, about 30 percent of patients find a donor within their family, according to Be the Match. Those who dont must turn to international registries to find an unrelated donor.

Around 15 years ago, doctors couldnt do a transplant on anyone over the age of 50, according to Dr. Leslie Lehmann, clinical director of the Stem Cell Transplant Center at Dana Farber.

Its a big stress on the body, Lehmann said.

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Registries seek to match donors with rising marrow demand

Helping a little boy live life to the Max

By adminMarch 8, 2015Stem Cell Doctors

By Andrew MeenahanFeb. 10, 2015, 10 a.m.

He has already beaten the odds by defying death, but the next year is just as critical for young Max McIntyre.

Max McIntyre ... before he lost his sight he was drawn to things yellow.

HE has already beaten the odds by defying death for 12 long months since suffering severe brain damage and blindness from bacterial meningitis, but the next year is just as critical for young Max McIntyre.

Maxs story has brought out the best in people across western NSW as his parents Amy and Rob and friends such as Bathursts Paul Twohill have harnessed the power of social media in a fundraising campaign they hope will save and improve the quality of his life.

Rob and Amy are fighting on two fronts.

The fundraising challenge is daunting they need at least $100,000 for stem cell treatment to help improve Maxs quality of life. But at least that is clear cut.

On the other battle front, the couple is desperately trying to find out if this treatment can even be performed and if anyone, anywhere, will do it for them.

Where do you even start to research this information? Google? Asking doctors? Trying to contact researchers?

They soon discovered no one performs the surgery in Australia and have tentatively narrowed it down to London, Philadelphia and Toronto but the complications and hurdles involved with such a procedure are daunting.

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Helping a little boy live life to the Max

Possible HIV cure OK'd for testing

By adminMarch 5, 2015Stem Cell Doctors

Scanning electromicrograph of an HIV-infected T cell.

HIV patients will be given genetically modified stem cells in an attempt to effectively cure them of the infection, the first time this experimental therapy has been tried.

Sangamo Biosciences, based in the Bay Area community of Richmond, received approval from federal regulators Tuesday to conduct the clinical trial.

The therapy involves removing patients' blood-forming stem cells, genetically editing them so they become resistant to HIV infection, and then placing them back into the patients. These stem cells are expected to give rise to new immune system cells with the resistant properties. As part of the process, patients will be given chemotherapy to reduce the number of their own unaltered stem cells.

If successful, the genetically modified stem cells will reconstitute a new immune system that bars the door HIV uses to infect immune cells. That would represent the closest scientists have yet come to a cure, another milestone from the dismal days of the 1980s when HIV was regarded as a virtual death sentence.

It would also represent a major triumph for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state's stem cell program, which provided $5.6 million for the trial. CIRM has been under pressure in recent years to justify the $3 billion in bond funding California voters granted in 2004 to establish the agency. CIRM is also funding a similar program by Calimmune, a Tucson, Ariz. company that performs research in California.

Researchers say the Sangamo approach is promising, but it remains to be seen how well the replacement stem cells will function. One concern is what effect the remaining, HIV-vulnerable immune cells will have, or whether they will be purged by selection by the viral attack. In addition, the altered stem cells must be examined for any unintentional side effects of their editing.

The treatment is to be given at City of Hope in Duarte. It's an advance on a similar clinical trial already under way by Sangamo. That treatment uses a specific kind of immune cell, a kind called CD4+, that is the main target of HIV. But other immune cell types also appear to be involved. In other words, the ongoing Sangamo trial, now in Phase 2, reconstitutes one critical part of the immune system, but not all.

More than 70 patients have already been treated, and some of them have already been shown to control their HIV without anti-HIV medication, said Geoff Nichol, Sangamo's executive vice president of research and development. But the cells are not "infinitely renewable," Nichols said. So at some point the cells must be replenished with more grown in the lab.

The new trial aims at producing the full spectrum of immune cells by using stem cells. Moreover, the altered stem cells, to be given in a bone marrow transplant, potentially could provide new immune cells for life. Once the transplanted cells are found to have taken up residence and are functioning, patients will be taken off antiretroviral therapy and doctors will watch to see if their new immune system can control HIV without therapy.

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Possible HIV cure OK'd for testing

Bid to get Maxine treatment in China

By adminMarch 2, 2015Stem Cell Doctors

A FORMER acrobat whose rare disease leaves her unable to move other than to blink is seeking help from Chinese scientists.

Despite careers as a trapeze artist and yoga teacher, Maxine Craik, of Beach Road, Mersea, lays paralysed by Spinocerebellar Ataxia.

Her friends and carers are trying to raise 60,000 to send her to China where Nobel Prize winning doctors offer controversial stem-cell therapy, not available in the UK.

She has an incurable brain disease which causes the body to shut down, but leaves the mind unaffected.

Over the past year, Miss Craik, 49, has lost the ability to talk, walk, swallow and her eye sight is failing.

The mum-of-one communicates by blinking as helpers use an alphabet board to spell messages.

Jayne Richards, her personal carer for five years, said: Maxine can hear and understand everything that is said to her, but her only response is to almost wink. Imagine the horror and frustration.

We have decided to try to raise enough money to take her to China so that she can undergo this potentially life-changing treatment, but, is not going to be cheap.

But it is a glimmer of hope.

Miss Richards began researching stem-cell therapy four years ago to try and help her friend. She has agreed a treatment plan with the Shenzhen Beike Cell Engineering Research Institute near Hong Kong with the blessing of UK neurologists.

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Bid to get Maxine treatment in China