Scots toddler who needs weekly blood transfusions to receive life changing stem-cells from US donor – Daily Record

A young Scots tot battling a rare form of cancer is to receive life-changing stem cell, from a US donor.

Adeline Davidson, 3, suffers from myelodysplasia, an extremely rare form of blood cancer that affects only one in 250,000 children.

Since her diagnosis, Adeline has been receiving weekly blood transfusions to keep her alive.

A female who lives in the United States has been identified as donor and doctors have assessed as a 9/10 match.

Adeline's mum Stephanie, from Alness, Easter Ross welcomed the news of the match.

She said: My mind was going crazy. All we know is that she is an American we know nothing more than that. You hear stories about people meeting their donors.

"The most mind-blowing thing for me is that this person who we dont know will pass on some of her DNA to Adeline."

Its good news but it does bring new anxieties. Our focus now is keeping Adeline away from bugs and infections. She needs to be healthy.

Under existing regulations, Stephanie and Adeline's dad Jordan, will not be able to find out any more about the woman who could change their daughters life for at least two years after the transplant.

All being well Adeline, will be prepared for the transplant which can help restore the bodys ability to make blood cells next month and undergo the procedure in March.

Stephanie said: The support has been amazing. The messages we have got have been lovely and kept us going. It shows you there are good people out there.

"A lot of people say Im calm. It is what it is and you just need to keep a positive mind and be strong for her. Now its a waiting game.

There was another surprise for Adeline when she was invited aboard the Maersk Resilient oil rig, one of the giant landmarks dotting Invergordons shoreline.

Crew members seeking a worthy local cause for money they wished to donate had asked around on shore and been pointed in the Davidsons direction.

As well as the invitation for a tour of the rig capable of drilling to a depth of 30,000ft and sleeping 120 people Adeline was given a 1,000 donation on behalf of crew members.

The delighted youngster, who may be the youngest ever guest to have boarded the rig, relished the jaunt in the company of her mum and granny Lorraine, whose has also championed her cause on a number of fronts.

Stephanie Davidson said: It was brilliant, we got to see around the whole rig.

When they handed over a 1000 cheque, the family who face regular long overnight hospital trips to Glasgow were bowled over.

We were not expecting that much, said Mrs Davidson, who is also mum to nine-month-old twins, Josie and Jude.

She is charting Adelines journey on the Instagram feed @adelinebluesjourney_x and says messages of support there mean the world to the family.

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Scots toddler who needs weekly blood transfusions to receive life changing stem-cells from US donor - Daily Record

Advancells Group & IFC Concluded their 3-Day Workshop on Regenerative Medicine – APN News

Published on January 23, 2020

New Delhi:On Saturday, January 18th, 2020, the Advancells Group & the International Fertility Center together ended their first workshop Sub-Specialty Training in Application of Regenerative Medicine (S.T.A.R. 2020). The three-day workshop had specialized doctors, medical practitioners, learned scientists of Advancells, the leaders in cell manufacturing & processes and IFC, one of Indias most prestigious Fertility institute who were joined by candidates with MBBS/BAMS/BHMS/BPharma & Masters degree in Life Sciences.

The key-note speaker of the workshop was Dr. Rita Bakshi, founder and chairperson of International Fertility Centre, the oldest fertility clinic and one of the most renowned IVF clinics in India, one of the organizers of the event. Participants also had a privilege to listen to Dr. Sachin Kadam, CTO, Advancellsand gain hands-on experience in the preparation of PRP; Liposuction method; and Bone Marrow aspiration. All these techniques were talked about at length and demonstrated in the form of manual & kit-based models to help the candidates gain exposure.

Dr. Punit Prabha, Head of Clinical Research and Dr. Shradha Singh Gautam, Head of Lab Operations at Advancells successfully set the base of stem cell biology for the participants who were experts in gynecology field, stem cell research and pain specialist. With the help of detailed analysis of Application of PRP for Skin rejuvenation; Preparation of Micro-fragmented Adipose Tissue and Nano Fat & SVF (Stromal Vascular Fraction) from Adipose Tissue; and Cell Culturing and Expansion in a Laboratory, applicants understood the application of stem cells in aesthetics, cosmetology, and anti-aging.

Vipul Jain, Founder & CEO of Advancells Groupsaid, Educating young scientists about stem cells is important for us. With this workshop we wanted to discuss and share the challenges and lessons we have learned in our journey of curing our customers. We wanted to establish more concrete knowledge base in the presence of subject matter experts and help our attendees in more possible ways. We are hopeful to have successfully achieved what we claimed with this workshop.

Given the resounding success of the Sub-Specialty Training in Application of Regenerative Medicine (S.T.A.R. 2020), its hoped that the future events shall offer even greater wisdom to the participants by helping them improve and the lead the community into the age of greater awareness.

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Advancells Group & IFC Concluded their 3-Day Workshop on Regenerative Medicine - APN News

How to Improve on a Good Year for Global Health | by Melvin Sanicas – Project Syndicate

The discovery of new viruses, vaccines, and treatments in 2019 was the result of investments in global surveillance, cross-sector partnerships, and scientific advances. At a time when misinformation is calling into question the validity of facts, the world needs to support science more than ever.

ZURICH Measles went viral in 2018, infecting nearly ten million people worldwide and claiming 142,000 lives. Poor vaccination coverage and large pockets of unvaccinated children resulted in devastating outbreaks in many parts of the world, including in countries that had high vaccination rates or had previously eliminated the disease. Last year, the United States reported its highest number of cases in a quarter-century, while four European countries Albania, the Czech Republic, Greece, and the United Kingdom lost their measles-free status following protracted outbreaks.

Moreover, two studies demonstrated how a measles infection reduces the levels of pre-existing antibodies against other pathogens like flu or pneumonia. So, children who recover from measles become more vulnerable to other infectious diseases.

Fortunately, measles was not the only big global health story of 2019. The year also was full of exciting discoveries of new viruses, vaccines, and treatments that again proved the value of science.

Virus research made significant strides last year. For starters, scientists in Japan discovered the Medusavirus, so named because it can turn amoebae into stone-like cysts. Its genome is among the largest and most complex viral genomes ever found. Separately, researchers identified a new tick-borne illness the Alongshan virus in a group of patients in Inner Mongolia. For the first time, an insect RNA (ribonucleic acid) virus, the Providence virus, was found to have the ability to infect plants and mammalian cells suggesting that plants could act as reservoirs of human viruses. Meanwhile, the Spanish authorities reported the first case of dengue attributed to sexual transmission in an area without vector mosquitoes.

In addition, a mysterious polio-like disease known as acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, has emerged in the US in recent years, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting over 600 cases since 2014. Immunological studies published last year linked this new disease to two enteroviruses. Researchers also associated a common human herpes virus (HHV-6) and the Epstein-Barr virus with multiple sclerosis, linked adenovirus C with type I diabetes, and found that a human papillomavirus infection increases the risk of breast cancer. Another study found that the brains of Alzheimers patients had higher levels of the HHV-6 and HHV-7 viruses than healthy brains, while levels of viral RNA tracked the severity of clinical symptoms. More research is needed to discover exactly what roles, if any, these viruses play in the progression of these diseases.

Vaccines also advanced in 2019. For starters, the European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration approved Ervebo, the first Ebola vaccine. Trials had shown the vaccine to be 100% effective in preventing transmission of the disease to people who had been in close contact with those infected. Another Ebola vaccine, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, was also tested during 2019 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the second-largest outbreak of the disease began in August 2018.

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Meanwhile, the Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium completed a large field study in Nepal which showed that the typhoid conjugate vaccine is safe, immunogenic, and effective, and could significantly reduce typhoid infection among high-risk groups. In addition, the World Health Organization prequalified a more affordable pneumococcal conjugate vaccine that could help to widen protection against a leading cause of deadly childhood pneumonia.

Finally, new and improved treatments provided some of the best global health news of the year. In particular, the final results of a study called Pamoja Tulinde Maisha (Together Save Lives) in the DRC showed that two experimental Ebola treatments based on monoclonal antibodies were nearly twice as effective as the standard treatment. When patients received the new treatments shortly after the onset of symptoms, deaths decreased by almost 90%. For the first time, therefore, Ebola ceased to be a death sentence.

Moreover, gene therapy staged a comeback in 2019, mainly featuring adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors, and lentiviral vectors derived from HIV. Early last year, doctors in the US used lentiviral gene therapy to cure children afflicted with a severe immunodeficiency. And the previous December, a phase 1/2 human-based clinical trial of another lentiviral gene therapy stopped painful episodes of sickle cell disease, and relieved nearly 80% of patients of the need for therapeutic blood transfusions.

Also last year, the FDA approved the AAV-based Zolgensma gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy. Other AAV-based experimental therapies, including one for temporal lobe epilepsy and another for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, were tested on animals with promising results.

The discovery of many new viruses, vaccines, and treatments in 2019 was the result of investments in global surveillance, cross-sector partnerships, and scientific advances. But much more needs to be done. For example, we are only beginning to understand the impact of climate change on the emergence of infectious diseases and on the social and environmental determinants of health.

Science may have been successful last year, but it still needs support. This should include more high-quality education in the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), increased funding of global research collaborations, and continued government support for innovation and research and development. At a time when misinformation is calling into question the validity of facts, the world also needs better science communication including higher-quality science reporting by the mass media.

This year started with a mysterious outbreak in Wuhan, China, involving individuals who have contracted a novel coronavirus. The coming weeks or months will, one hopes, bring answers to some key questions, including how the virus is acquired, whether those who have died or are critically ill have other medical conditions that explain the severity of illness, and many others. Science helped the world with the pandemic H1N1, SARS, and Ebola viruses, and science will once again help the world overcome this new threat.

The world is on the cusp of further, previously unimaginable medical discoveries and innovations. By supporting science and highlighting its positive impact, we can make 2020 an even better year for global health.

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How to Improve on a Good Year for Global Health | by Melvin Sanicas - Project Syndicate

Europe’s guardian of stem cells and hopes, real and unrealistic – INQUIRER.net

Submerged in liquid nitrogen vapor at a temperature of minus 175 degrees Celsius, hundreds of thousands of stem cells from all over Europe bide their time in large steel barrels on the outskirts of Warsaw.

Present in blood drawn from the umbilical cord of a newborn baby, stem cells can help cure serious blood-related illnesses like leukemias and lymphomas, as well as genetic conditions and immune system deficits.

Polish umbilical cord blood bank PBKM/FamiCord became the industrys leader in Europe after Swiss firm Cryo-Save went bankrupt early last year.

It is also the fifth largest in the world, according to its management, after two companies in the United States, a Chinese firm and one based in Singapore.

Since the first cord blood transplant was performed in France in 1988, the sector has significantly progressed, fuelling hopes.

Health insurance

Mum-of-two Teresa Przeborowska has firsthand experience.

At five years old, her son Michal was diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant, the entrepreneur from northern Poland said.

The most compatible donor was his younger sister, Magdalena.

When she was born, her parents had a bag of her cord blood stored at PBKM.

More than three years later, doctors injected his sisters stem cells into Michals bloodstream.

It was not quite enough for Michals needs but nicely supplemented harvested bone marrow.

As a result, Michal, who is nine, is now flourishing, both intellectually and physically, his mum told AFP.

A cord blood transplant has become an alternative to a bone marrow transplant when there is no donor available, with a lower risk of complications.

Stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood are like those taken from bone marrow, capable of producing all blood cells: red cells, platelets and immune system cells.

When used, stem cells are first concentrated, then injected into the patient. Once transfused, they produce new cells of every kind.

At the PBKM laboratory, each container holds up to 10,000 blood bags Safe and secure, they wait to be used in the future, its head, Krzysztof Machaj, said.

The bank holds around 440,000 samples, not including those from Cryo-Save, he said.

If the need arises, the blood will be ready to use without the whole process of looking for a compatible donor and running blood tests, the biologist told AFP.

For families who have paid an initial nearly 600 euros (around P34,000) and then an annual 120 euros (around P7,000) to have the blood taken from their newborns umbilical cords preserved for around 20 years, it is a kind of health insurance promising faster and more effective treatment if illness strikes.

But researchers also warn against unrealistic expectations.

Beauty products

Hematologist Wieslaw Jedrzejczak, a bone marrow pioneer in Poland, describes promoters of the treatment as sellers of hope, who make promises that are either impossible to realize in the near future or downright impossible to realize at all for biological reasons.

He compares them to makers of beauty products who swear their cream will rejuvenate the client by 20 years.

Various research is being done on the possibility of using the stem cells to treat other diseases, notably nervous disorders. But the EuroStemCell scientist network warns that the research is not yet conclusive.

There is a list of almost 80 diseases for which stem cells could prove beneficial, U.S. hematologist Roger Mrowiec, who heads the clinical laboratory of the cord blood program Vitalant in New Jersey, told AFP.

But given the present state of medicine, they are effective only for around a dozen of them, like leukemia or cerebral palsy, he said.

Its not true, as its written sometimes, that we can already use them to fight Parkinsons disease or Alzheimers disease or diabetes.

EuroStemCell also cautions against private blood banks that advertise services to parents suggesting they should pay to freeze their childs cord blood in case its needed later in life.

Studies show it is highly unlikely that the cord blood will ever be used for their child, the network said.

It also pointed out that there could be a risk of the childs cells not being useable anyway without reintroducing the same illness.

Some countries, such as Belgium and France, are cautious and ban the storage of cord blood for private purposes. Most E.U. countries however permit it while imposing strict controls.

Rapid growth

In the early 2000s, Swiss company Cryo-Save enjoyed rapid growth.

Greeks, Hungarians, Italians, Spaniards and Swiss stored blood from their newborns with the company for 20 years on payment of 2,500 euros (around P140,000) upfront.

When the firm was forced to close in early 2019, clients were left wondering where their stem cells would end up.

Under a kind of back-up agreement, the samples of some 250,000 European families were transferred for storage at PBKM.

The Polish firm, founded in 2002 with 2 million zlotys (around P26 million), has also grown quickly.

Present under the FamiCord brand in several countries, PBKM has some 35% of the European market, excluding Cryo-Save assets.

Over the last 15 months, outside investors have contributed 63 million euros to the firm, PBKMs chief executive Jakub Baran told AFP.

But the company has not escaped controversy: the Polityka weekly recently published a critical investigative report on several private clinics that offer what was described as expensive treatment involving stem cells held by PBKM.IB/JB

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Europe's guardian of stem cells and hopes, real and unrealistic - INQUIRER.net

Diane Francis: Treating aging like a disease is the next big thing for science – Financial Post

LOS ANGELES Extending everyones life in a healthy fashion is one of many goals held by Peter Diamandis, a space, technology, aeronautics and medicine pioneer. But the new field known as longevity is of interest to everyone.

One hundred will be the new 60, he told his Abundance360 conference recently. The average human health span will increase by 10+ years this decade.

He, like others in Silicon Valley, believe that aging is a disease and the result of planned obsolescence, or the wearing down of, or damage to, certain critical mechanisms, sensors and functions within our bodies. Longevity research is about identifying the core problems to mitigate or reverse them.

The average human health span will increase by 10+ years this decade

Peter Diamandis

The exponential technologies of artificial intelligence, machine learning and computational heft have been harnessed, and have resulted in breakthroughs and clinical trials that are just a handful of years away from deployment on human patients. The main areas of research include: Stem cell supply restoration, regenerative medicine to regrow damaged cartilage, ligaments, tendons, bone, spinal cords and neural nerves; vaccine research against chronic diseases such as Alzheimers; and United Therapeutics that is developing technology to tackle the organ shortage for humans by genetically engineering organs grown in pigs.

New tools are accelerating the development of new, tailor-made medicines at a fraction of todays costs. Alex Zhavoronkov of Insilico Medicine told the conference that drugs take 10 years and cost $3 billion to research and 90 per cent fail. But his company can test in 46 days using human tissue, then model, design and produce in weeks with the help of advanced computing.

In regenerative medicine, advances appear to be arriving relatively soon. For instance, Diamandis asked the audience if anyone was awaiting a knee replacement operation and suggested that they might be better off postponing these until 2021 when regenerative medicine innovator, Samumed LLC in San Diego, is expected to complete phase three clinical trials of cartilage regeneration.

Samumeds founder, Osman Kibar, said his company has successfully injected a protein that activates nearby stem cells into producing new cartilage in a knee or a new disc in a spine. Preliminary success has also occurred to regenerate muscle and neural cells, retinal cells, skin and hair. Not surprisingly, the private company just raised US$15.5 billion to continue research and product development.

Another hot area of early stage research is called epigenetic reprogramming or identifying how to reverse deficiencies in proteins, stem cells, chromosomes, genes that repair DNA and damaged cells. A leader in this field is David Sinclair, professor of genetics at the Harvard Medical School, whose new book Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Dont Have To explains the science and offers advice.

Aging is a disease, and that disease is treatable, he said. As research progresses toward actual corrections or cures, there are also lifestyle habits that can slow down the aging process, or avert damage. For instance, he said humans should replicate some behaviour that their bodies were designed for. Obviously, exercising and sleep are necessary but so is eating less often. You should feel hungry regularly, he said.

Another condition that is useful to emulate is hormesis, a scientific term for what Neitzsche posited which was that that which does not kill us makes us stronger. Sinclair recommends stressing our bodies with temperature changes such as going from a hot sauna to rolling in the snow. This invigorates the bodys processes and cells.

Theres also xenohormesis or gaining benefits from eating plants that have been environmentally stressed, therefore contain more beneficial nutrients. For instance, drought-stressed or wild strawberries have better flavour but they also are enhanced with additional antioxidant capacity and phenol content.

The age of 100 is easily in sight now, said Diamandis. And kids born today can expect to live to 105.

Financial Post

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Diane Francis: Treating aging like a disease is the next big thing for science - Financial Post

OncoImmune Announces Presentation of CD24Fc Phase IIa Data and Phase III Clinical Trial Design at the 2020 Transplantation & Cellular Therapy…

OncoImmune, Inc. announced today that clinical data from its Phase IIa clinical trial of CD24Fc are being presented at the 2020 Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASTCT and CIBMTR Meeting, taking place in Orlando, Florida in February. The Phase IIa data will be presented by the studys Principle Investigator, Dr. John Magenau of the University of Michigans Department of Medicine, at 11:15 am on February 21. Dr. Pan Zheng, the Chief Medical Officer of OncoImmune, Inc., will present Phase III clinical trial design in a poster session on February 19-20th.

CD24Fc is OncoImmunes first-in class fusion protein that selectively represses inflammation induced by tissue injury while preserving innate immune response to pathogens. The Phase IIa study is a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, multi-center study to investigate adding CD24Fc to standard of care tacrolimus and methotrexate in acute graft-versus host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) with matched unrelated donors in treatment of leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome. The trial included three CD24Fc dose cohorts: 240 mg at day -1, 480 mg at day -1, and the multi-dose cohort of 480-240-240 mg at day -1, day 14 and day 28. CD24Fc has received orphan drug designation from both the US FDA and European Medical Agency (EMA) for GVHD prophylaxis.

The presentation, entitled, "Mitigating Damage Response with CD24 Fusion Protein for Prevention of Acute Graft-Versus Host Disease," compares safety and efficacy data of CD24Fc when used in combination with standard of care GVHD prophylaxis compared to placebo and historical controls. The results demonstrate that CD24Fc was safe and well tolerated in the patient population. More importantly, patients receiving CD24Fc performed significantly better than placebo and historical controls in 180 day grade III-IV GVHD-free survival, the planned primary endpoint for the Phase III trial. These data thus provided strong support for the primary endpoint and dosing regimen of the upcoming phase III clinical trial. Moreover, significantly better relapse free survival (RFS) was observed over placebo control and historical controls. Overall survival (OS) was also significantly improved when compared with a matched historical control. Furthermore, a significant, dose-dependent reduction of mucositis was observed.

"We are very excited by the data observed in the Phase IIa clinical trial. In addition, we have completed enrollment of an open label Phase II expansion study where the drug continues to perform very well with clear signs of clinical efficacy," said Dr. Pan Zheng. "HCT is a curative therapy for refractory leukemia patients but hampered by GVHD, leukemia relapse and conditioning toxicity. As suggested by our preliminary data, CD24Fc shows significant promise in all three of these outcomes and would likely be transformative for the HCT field," she continued.

About OncoImmune, Inc.

OncoImmune (www.oncoimmune.com) is a privately-held, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that is actively engaged in the discovery and development of novel immunotherapies for cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases.

In addition to the pivotal trial of CD24Fc for HCT indications, OncoImmune is also launching multiple clinical trials testing its efficacy in immunotherapy-related adverse events, mucositis, and sequalae of chronic inflammation of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus.

More recently, OncoImmune received FDA approval for the first-in-human clinical trial, testing the safety and efficacy of ONC-392, the only CTLA-4 targeting agent that preserves CTLA-4 recycling and thus the potential to simultaneously improve safety and efficacy of cancer immunotherapy.

OncoImmune is based in Rockville, Maryland.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200127005538/en/

Contacts

Martin Devenport OncoImmune, Inc. mdevenport@oncoimmune.com

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OncoImmune Announces Presentation of CD24Fc Phase IIa Data and Phase III Clinical Trial Design at the 2020 Transplantation & Cellular Therapy...

Rochester nonprofit offers a helping hand to patients affected by blood cancers – Med City Beat

When Woodbury resident Tracy McGarry was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, she and her husband Mike turned to a city 90 miles south for answers. Rochester soon became a second home of sorts not by choice, but by necessity.

We were referred to Mayo Clinic by a myeloma specialist in the [Twin] Cities, recalled Mike. Every time wed be down there, we were there for seven days at a time. Tracy was gearing up for a stem cell transplant in the fall of 2017, so we were down there quite a bit.

Blood cancers like multiple myeloma and leukemia bring many families like the McGarrys to Rochester every year. They seek treatment that may not be available at their hometown hospital, all while trying to navigate a city thats entirely new to them. The whole experience can be disorienting, and Rochester can start to feel cold to outsiders.

Enter Kristina Wright-Peterson and Red Drop Resources. You may know this organization by their previous name, Med City Foundation, but for their five-year anniversary, Wright-Peterson decided it was time for a change.

She said the new name better reflects what the organization provides.

The term resources really speaks to everything we provide patients, said Wright-Peterson. We dont just provide financial assistance. We dont just provide assistance with finding a place to stay. We start every conversation with patients in terms of, what do you need help with? We dont tell them what we help with; we ask them what they need.

A majority of the time, families dealing with blood cancers have not had much time to prepare for a sudden move to Rochester. That means they need income support and a place to stay fast.

The blood cancer treatment regimen requires people to stay for 6-8 weeks, said Wright-Peterson. That means the patient, plus a caregiver normally their spouse are stuck in Rochester, trying to pay for things here with no money coming in.

Wright-Peterson founded Red Drop Resources in 2014 in honor of her late father, who died in 1995 after a battle with leukemia. She says the nonprofit fills a need that her family had nearly 20 years ago, and working with her mother, Virginia, has been a benefit for both of them.

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Rochester nonprofit offers a helping hand to patients affected by blood cancers - Med City Beat

Cardiff researchers on brink of ‘one size fits all’ cancer therapy – Active Quote

Monday, January 27, 2020

Cancer patients could be treated with a one-size-fits-all therapy, following the discovery of an immune cell which kills all forms of the disease.

Researchers at Cardiff University have found a new type of killer T-cell, capable of recognising and destroying most human cancers while preserving healthy cells. The scientists discovered a method of killing prostate, breast, lung and other cancers in lab tests and say there is enormous potential for immunotherapies not previously thought to be possible.

Cardiff Universitys cancer findings came from scientists looking for unconventional ways in which the immune system naturally attacks tumours. They found, inside human blood, a T-cell that can scan the body for a threat, such as cancerous cells, and eliminate the danger while leaving healthy cells alone. The team described the work as at an early stage, but exciting.

T-cell cancer therapies are where immune cells are removed, modified and returned to the patients blood to seek and destroy cancer cells. The most widely-used, known as CAR-T, is personalised to the patient but combats only a handful of cancers and has not been successful in eliminating solid tumours - which account for the vast majority of cancers.

The Cardiff teams discovery involves a new type of T-cell receptor (TCR), which recognises a molecule present on the surface of a wide range of cancer cells as well as in many of the bodys normal cells and is, remarkably, able to distinguish between the two. In tests, T-cells equipped with the new TCR killed lung, skin, blood, colon, breast, bone, prostate, ovarian, kidney and cervical cancer cells.

Professor Andrew Sewell, the lead author on the study and an expert in T-cells from Cardiff Universitys School of Medicine, said it was highly unusual to find a TCR with such broad cancer specificity, raising the prospect of universal cancer therapy.

Prof Sewell said: We hope this new TCR may provide us with a different route to target and destroy a wide range of cancers in all individuals. Current TCR-based therapies can only be used in a minority of patients with a minority of cancers.

Cancer-targeting via MR1-restricted T-cells is an exciting new frontier - it raises the prospect of a one-size-fits-all cancer treatment; a single type of T-cell that could be capable of destroying many different types of cancers across the population. Previously nobody believed this could be possible.

Further experiments and safety testing are now underway, with the hope of trialling this new approach in patients towards the end of 2020. Prof Sewell added: There are plenty of hurdles to overcome; however, if this testing is successful, then I would hope this new treatment could be in use in patients in a few years time.

Cancer is the leading cause of all avoidable deaths in the UK. Breast cancer is the most common, followed jointly by prostate and lung cancer and then by bowel cancer. Obesity is now a bigger cause than smoking of some cancers, namely bowel, kidney, liver and ovarian cancer.

According to financial information business Defaqto*, 38 out of 51 health insurance products include cancer cover, with benefits ranging from breakthrough treatment not otherwise available on the NHS to hormone therapy, reconstructive surgery and stem cell therapy. To find the right cancer cover for your family, use our online comparison tool or speak with our team on 0800 862 0373.

Photo:Cardiff Universitys Professor Andrew Sewell, left, with Research Fellow Garry Dolton.

Credit: Cardiff University

* Data sourced on January 2, 2020.

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Scientists Think They Know How Stress Causes Gray Hair – Healthline

Sorry Mom and Dad: It turns out you might not have been exaggerating when you told us your children made your hair turn gray.

Stress may play a key role in just how quickly hair goes from colored to ashen, a study published this past week in the journal Nature suggests.

Scientists have long understood some link is possible between stress and gray hair, but this new research from Harvard University in Massachusetts more deeply probes the exact mechanisms at play.

The researchers initial tests looked closely at cortisol, the stress hormone that surges in the body when a person experiences a fight or flight response.

Its an important bodily function, but the long-term presence of heightened cortisol is linked to a host of negative health outcomes.

But the culprit ended up being a different part of the bodys fight or flight response the sympathetic nervous system.

These nerves are all over the body, including making inroads to each hair follicle, the researchers reported.

Chemicals released during the stress response specifically norepinephrine causes pigment producing stem cells to activate prematurely, depleting the hairs reserves of color.

The detrimental impact of stress that we discovered was beyond what I imagined, Ya-Chieh Hsu, PhD, a lead study author and an associate professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard, said in a press release. After just a few days, all of the pigment-regenerating stem cells were lost. Once theyre gone, you cant regenerate pigments anymore. The damage is permanent.

But stress isnt the only or even the primary reason that most people get gray hair.

In most cases, its simple genetics.

Gray hair is caused by loss of melanocytes (pigment cells) in the hair follicle. This happens as we age and, unfortunately, there is no treatment that can restore these cells and the pigment they produce, melanin, Dr. Lindsey A. Bordone, a dermatologist at ColumbiaDoctors and an assistant professor of dermatology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, told Healthline. Genetic factors determine when you go gray. There is nothing that can be done medically to prevent this from happening when it is genetically predetermined to happen.

That doesnt mean environmental factors such as stress dont play a role.

Smoking, for instance, is a known risk factor for premature graying, according to a 2013 study. So kick the habit if you want to keep that color a little longer.

Other contributing factors to premature graying include deficiencies in protein, vitamin B-12, copper, and iron as well as aging due in part to an accumulation of oxidative stress.

That stress is prompted by an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in your body that can damage tissue, proteins, and DNA, Kasey Nichols, NMD, an Arizona physician and a health expert at Rave Reviews, told Healthline.

And some degree of oxidative stress is a natural part of life.

We would expect increasing gray hair as we advance in age, and we see about a 10 percent increase in the chance of developing gray hair for every decade after age 30, Nichols said.

Changes you can pursue to delay premature grays include eating a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids such as walnuts and fatty fish, not spending too much time in the skin-damaging and hair-damaging ultraviolet light of the sun, and taking vitamin B-12 and vitamin B-6 supplements.

That said, if you are going gray prematurely, it wouldnt hurt to go have a checkup just in case natural genetic factors arent the sole culprit.

The new Harvard research is only a mouse study, so replicating the same results in a human study would be necessary to strengthen the findings.

But the Harvard research has implications far beyond graying hair, with the hair color change merely one obvious sign of other internal changes as a result of prolonged stress.

By understanding precisely how stress affects stem cells that regenerate pigment, weve laid the groundwork for understanding how stress affects other tissues and organs in the body, said Hsu. Understanding how our tissues change under stress is the first critical step towards eventual treatment that can halt or revert the detrimental impact of stress.

Might that also mean someday halting and reverting the march of premature gray hair? Its too soon to tell.

We still have a lot to learn in this area, Hsu said.

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Researchers Say They Have Clue to Early-Onset Parkinson Disease – AJMC.com Managed Markets Network

Patients with early-onset Parkinson disease may have been born with disordered brain cells that mishandled dopamine for decades, according to a study released Monday.

To perform the study, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and UCLA generated special stem cells, known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), from cells of 3 patients with young-onset Parkinson disease; the patients were aged 30-39 and hadno known familial history of PD or PD mutations.

The process involved taking adult blood cells back to a primitive embryonic state. These iPSCs can then produce any cell type of the human body, all genetically identical to the patient's own cells. The team used the iPSCs to produce dopamine neurons from each patient and then cultured them in a dish and analyzed the neurons' functions.

The researchers detected 2 key abnormalities in the dopamine neurons:

The investigators also used their model to test a number of drugs that might reverse the abnormalities. One drug, PEP005, or ingenol mebutate gel, used for basal cell carcinoma, reduced the elevated levels of alpha-synuclein in both the dopamine neurons in the dish and in laboratory mice.

The drug also countered another abnormality they found in the patients' dopamine neuronselevated levels of an active version of an enzyme called protein kinase C. However, the role of this enzyme version in Parkinson disease is unknown.

In Parkinson, brain neurons that make dopamine, a substance that helps coordinate muscle movement, become impaired or die. The disease is diagnosed in at least 500,000 people in the United States each year, and the incidence is rising. About 10% are aged 21 to 50 years.

Michele Tagliati, MD, director of the Movement Disorders Program, vice chair and professor in the Department of Neurology at Cedars-Sinai, said the team plans to investigate how PEP005 might be delivered to the brain to potentially treat or prevent young-onset Parkinson. The team also plans more research to determine whether the abnormalities the study found in neurons of young-onset Parkinson's patients also exist in other forms of the disease.

Reference

Laperle AH, Sances S, Yucer N, et al.iPSC modeling of young-onset Parkinsons disease reveals a molecular signature of disease and novel therapeutic candidates [published online January 27, 2020].Nat Med.doi: 10.1038/s41591-019-0739-1.

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Researchers Say They Have Clue to Early-Onset Parkinson Disease - AJMC.com Managed Markets Network