Stem Cell Clinic

New Drug May Help Keep Hodgkin Lymphoma at Bay

By Stem Cell Medical Center

WEDNESDAY, March 18, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- An FDA-approved drug doubled the amount of time that patients with Hodgkins lymphoma survived without any progression in their disease, a new study shows.

All of the patients also received stem cell therapy along with the drug, called brentuximab vedotin.

While the results are encouraging, doctors may never know if the drug is actually lengthening patients' lives, said Dr. Owen O'Connor, director of the Center for Lymphoid Malignancies at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

That's because brentuximab is fast becoming standard care for all patients with Hodgkin lymphoma who've relapsed after stem cell transplant, he said. So, a trial comparing the survival of patients who got the drug against those who did not might never be feasible, due to ethical concerns.

O'Connor was not involved in the trial, which was led by Dr. Craig Moskowitz, professor of medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. His team published the findings March 18 in The Lancet. The study was funded by Seattle Genetics Inc. and drug maker Takeda.

According to the American Cancer Society, about 9,000 new cases of Hodgkin lymphoma are diagnosed each year, and more than 1,100 people die from the illness annually. The cancer most often strikes young adults.

The phase 3 trial of brentuximab vedotin included 329 patients, aged 18 and older, who were at high risk of cancer relapse or progression after undergoing stem cell transplant, in which healthy stem cells from the patient are used to replace those lost to cancer or chemotherapy.

The patients were randomly assigned to receive 16 cycles of brentuximab vedotin infusions once every three weeks, or an inactive placebo.

After two years, there was no cancer progression in 65 percent of the patients who received the drug, compared with 45 percent of those in the placebo group, the researchers found. Progression-free survival was 43 months for those who received the drug, compared with 24 months for those in the placebo group.

"Nearly all of these patients who are progression-free at two years are likely to be cured since relapse two years after a transplant is unlikely," Moskowitz said in a journal news release. "No medication available today has had such dramatic results in patients with hard-to-treat Hodgkin lymphoma," he said.

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New Drug May Help Keep Hodgkin Lymphoma at Bay

Global Stem Cells Group to Hold Practical Adipose-Derived Stem Cell Harvesting, Isolation and Re-integration Training …

By Uncategorized

MIAMI (PRWEB) March 19, 2015

Global Stem Cells Group and its subsidiary, Stem Cells Training, has coordinated with Emil Arroyo, M.D. and Horacio Oliver, M.D. to conduct the first of four stem cell training courses planned for Bolivia in 2015. Devised to meet the increasing demand for regenerative medicine techniques in the region, the first adipose derived harvesting, isolation and re-integration training course will take place April 4 and 5, 2015, in Santa Cruz.

The two-day, hands-on intensive training course was developed for physicians and high-level practitioners to learn the techniques in harvesting and reintegrating stem cells derived from adipose tissue and bone marrow. The objective of the training is to provide physicians with practical stem cell medicine techniques they can use in-office to treat a variety of conditions in their patients.

For more information, visit the Global Stem Cells Group website, email info(at)stemcelltraining(dot)net, or call 305-224-1858.

About Global Stem Cells Group:

Global Stem Cells Group, Inc. is the parent company of six wholly owned operating companies dedicated entirely to stem cell research, training, products and solutions. Founded in 2012, the company combines dedicated researchers, physician and patient educators and solution providers with the shared goal of meeting the growing worldwide need for leading edge stem cell treatments and solutions.

With a singular focus on this exciting new area of medical research, Global Stem Cells Group and its subsidiaries are uniquely positioned to become global leaders in cellular medicine.

Global Stem Cells Groups corporate mission is to make the promise of stem cell medicine a reality for patients around the world. With each of GSCGs six operating companies focused on a separate research-based mission, the result is a global network of state-of-the-art stem cell treatments.

About Stem Cell Training, Inc.:

Stem Cell Training, Inc. is a multi-disciplinary company offering coursework and training in 35 cities worldwide. The coursework offered focuses on minimally invasive techniques for harvesting stem cells from adipose tissue, bone marrow and platelet-rich plasma. By equipping physicians with these techniques, the goal is to enable them to return to their practices, better able to apply these techniques in patient treatments.

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Global Stem Cells Group to Hold Practical Adipose-Derived Stem Cell Harvesting, Isolation and Re-integration Training ...

Arthritis of low back, knees, and shoulder 2 years after stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson ND – Video

By Uncategorized


Arthritis of low back, knees, and shoulder 2 years after stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson ND
Jim describes his results two years after bone marrow stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson ND for treatment of his arthritic low back, knees, and shoulder http://www.docereclinics.com.

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

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Arthritis of low back, knees, and shoulder 2 years after stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson ND - Video

Stem cell therapy may help treat type 2 diabetes

By Stem Cell Treatment

A human embryonic stem cell line derived at Stanford University.(REUTERS/Julie Baker/Stanford University School of Medicine/California Institute for Regenerative Medicine/Handout)

Type 2 diabetes is marked by insulin resistance, or the bodys inability to store sugar and convert it into carbohydrates for energy. Overcoming that resistance is the main hurdle scientists face in creating new treatment for the condition, but researchers in Canada have found a promising means for doing so: combining stem cell therapy and antidiabetic medication.

Type 2 diabetes accounts for nearly 95 percent of the 400 million diabetes cases worldwide. Current treatment involves imprecise insulin injection, and can produce side effects like unwanted weight gain, gastrointestinal issues and low blood glucose levels. Eighty percent of Type 2 diabetes patients are overweight.

In the study, published Thursday in the journal Stem Cell Reports, scientists observed that transplanting human stem cells into mice with Type 2 diabetes symptoms, then administering common antidiabetic drugs, improved the mices glucose metabolism, body weight and insulin sensitivity three hallmark problems associated with the condition.

There have been similar reports looking at treatment of type 1 diabetes by stem cell-based replacement, and there are many people around the world who are interested in that, lead study author Timothy J. Kieffer, a molecular and cellular medicine professor at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, told FoxNews.com. Until this point, nobody to our knowledge had tested such a stem cell-based transplant study in a Type 2 diabetes model.

Many [of these studies] have been predicted to fail because one of the characteristics of Type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance, and that is in part due to obesity and higher demands of insulin, Kieffer added, and therefore it might be predicted that insulin replacement wouldnt work if were just putting insulin back.

Researchers fed four separate groups of immunosuppressed mice a different diet to try to emulate humans diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. One group of mice received a 45 percent fat diet; one a 60 percent fat diet; one a high-fat, Western diet; and the last a low-fat diet. No single group of mice developed a phenotype that exactly mimicked a Type 2 diabetes human patient, but all three high-fat groups ended up exhibiting characteristics that mirrored the hallmark features of the condition.

Study authors transplanted human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived pancreatic progenitor cells into the mice after they began exhibiting symptoms. These cells are programmed to expand and differentiate when transplanted into the pancreas, and to subsequently secrete insulin.

To transplant the human stem cells, researchers used a macroencapsulation device, a mechanism that is meant to prevent the body from detecting nonnative material as foreign and subsequently rejecting it. Because the mice were immunosuppressed, the device wasnt necessary, but Kieffer said his team used it so their findings would be more relevant for future clinical trials, wherein the patients would not be immunosuppressed. Researchers opted to induce Type 2 diabetes symptoms in immunosuppressed mice instead of using the mice model genetically engineered to assume Type 2 diabetes for that same reason.

The hope in the field is that some sort of device will eliminate the need for immunosuppression when cells are transplanted, Kieffer said.

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Stem cell therapy may help treat type 2 diabetes

First stem cell-based approach to treat type 2 diabetes effective in mice

By Stem Cell Treatment

IMAGE:This is an image of macro-encapsulated pancreatic endocrine cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. Devices were harvested at 29 weeks post-transplant and immunofluorescent staining was performed for insulin (red),... view more

A combination of human stem cell transplantation and antidiabetic drugs proved to be highly effective at improving body weight and glucose metabolism in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes. The findings, published March 19th by Stem Cell Reports, could set the stage for clinical trials to test the first stem cell-based approach for insulin replacement in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90%-95% of the now approaching 400 million cases of diabetes worldwide, is currently treated by oral medication, insulin injections, or both to control blood glucose levels. However, insulin delivery is imprecise, onerous, and often promotes weight gain, while drugs do not work in some patients and may cause gastrointestinal problems or low blood glucose levels, highlighting the strong need for better treatment options.

To address this need, senior study author Timothy Kieffer of the University of British Columbia collaborated with BetaLogics, a division of Janssen Research & Development, LLC, and tested a promising stem cell transplantation approach.

First, they fed mice a high-fat diet to induce obesity, low responsiveness to insulin, and high blood glucose levels--the hallmarks of type 2 diabetes. The mice then received transplants of encapsulated pancreatic progenitor cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. These transplanted cells matured into insulin-secreting beta cells, resulting in improvements in insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism. Moreover, stem cell transplantation combined with currently available antidiabetic drugs resulted in rapid weight loss in the mice and more significant improvements in glucose metabolism compared with either treatment alone.

Moving forward, the researchers will use their mouse model of type 2 diabetes to test the effectiveness of transplanting more mature insulin-producing cells that could potentially reverse symptoms of diabetes faster and at a lower dose compared to pancreatic progenitor cells.

A similar stem cell-based transplantation approach recently obtained clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration and Health Canada to be tested in patients with type 1 diabetes in phase1/2 clinical trials sponsored by a regenerative medicine company called ViaCyte.

"Success in these clinical trials could pave the way for testing in patients with type 2 diabetes," Kieffer says. "Our hope is that a stem cell-based approach to insulin replacement will ultimately improve glucose control in patients with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, resulting in healthier, longer lives."

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Dr. Kieffer received financial support from Janssen R&D, LLC, for the research described in this article. The work was also supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Regenerative Medicine and Nanomedicine Initiative, the Stem Cell Network (SCN), the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), and Stem Cell Technologies.

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First stem cell-based approach to treat type 2 diabetes effective in mice

Targeted drug doubles progression free survival in Hodgkin lymphoma

By Stem Cell Treatment

A phase 3 trial of brentuximab vedotin (BV), the first new drug for Hodgkin lymphoma in over 30 years, shows that adults with hard-to-treat Hodgkin lymphoma given BV immediately after stem cell transplant survived without the disease progressing for twice as long as those given placebo (43 months vs 24 months).

The findings, published in The Lancet, are potentially practice changing for this young cancer population who have exhausted other treatment options and for whom prognosis is poor.

"No medication available today has had such dramatic results in patients with hard-to-treat Hodgkin lymphoma", says lead author Craig Moskowitz, a Professor of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA.

Hodgkin lymphoma is the most common blood cancer in young adults aged between 15 and 35 years. Most patients are cured with chemotherapy or radiotherapy. However, for patients who relapse, or do not respond to initial therapy, the treatment of choice is usually a combination of high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT)--a procedure that uses healthy stem cells from the patient to replace those lost to disease or chemotherapy. While about 50% of patients who undergo this procedure are cured, for the other half treatment is palliative.

BV is an antibody attached to a powerful chemotherapy drug that seeks out cancer cells by targeting the CD30 protein on Hodgkin lymphoma cells. BV sticks to the CD30 protein and delivers chemotherapy directly into the cancer cell to kill it. Recently, BV has been approved for relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma in 50 countries.

In the AETHERA phase 3 trial, Moskowitz and colleagues aimed to establish whether early treatment with BV after ASCT could prevent disease progression. They randomly assigned 329 patients with Hodgkin lymphoma aged 18 or older who were at high risk of relapse or progression after ASCT to 16 cycles of BV infusions once every 3 weeks or placebo.

At 2 years follow up, the cancer had not progressed at all in 65% of BV patients compared with 45% in the placebo group. "Nearly all of these patients who are progression free at 2 years are likely to be cured since relapse 2 years after a transplant is unlikely", explains Dr Moskowitz.

BV was generally well tolerated. The most common side effects were peripheral neuropathy (numbness or pain in the extremities due to nerve damage; 67% BV vs 13% placebo) and neutropenia (low white blood count; 35% vs 12%).

According to Dr Moskowitz, "The bottom line is that BV is a very effective drug in poor risk Hodgkin lymphoma and it spares patients from the harmful effects of further traditional chemotherapy by breaking down inside the cell resulting in less toxicity."

Writing in a linked Comment, Professor Andreas Engert from the University Hospital of Cologne in Germany discusses how best to define which patients are at high risk of relapse and should be treated with BV. He writes, "AETHERA is a positive study establishing a promising new treatment approach for patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma at high risk for relapse. However, with a progression-free survival of about 50% at 24 months in the placebo group, whether this patient population is indeed high risk could be debated...An international consortium is currently reassessing the effect of risk factors in patients with relapsed Hodgkin's lymphoma to define a high-risk patient population in need of consolidation treatment. We look forward to a better definition of patients with relapsed Hodgkin's lymphoma who should receive consolidation treatment with brentuximab vedotin.

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Targeted drug doubles progression free survival in Hodgkin lymphoma

Study Shows Liposuction Byproduct Could Lead to ED Cure

By Stem Cell Treatment

Durham, NC (PRWEB) March 19, 2015

A new study appearing in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine has moved science one step closer to finding a simple treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED) after prostate cancer surgery, eschewing the usual pharmaceutical drug route with potential for harmful side effects, in favor of stem cell therapy that can help the body regenerate.

The study, conducted in rats, compares the effectiveness of using a byproduct of liposuction uncultured stromal vascular fraction (SVF) with adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) cultured in the lab to treat ED caused by injury to the cavernous nerve (CN). This nerve, which facilities erection, is sometimes injured during a radical prostatectomy to treat prostate cancer.

ADSCs are harvested from fat and are an attractive source of stem cells for several reasons: They are abundant and can be easily obtained using minimally invasive liposuction. Also, they have characteristics similar to bone marrow-derived stem cells in terms of self-renewal and multipotency. Furthermore, ADSCs retain their ability to divide and grow longer than bone marrow-derived stem cells, which may be beneficial in treating chronic conditions.

On the other hand, cultured ADSCs have limitations, including the cost and time of culturing them, the potential for contamination, changes in cell characteristics during culturing procedures, and their tendency to sometimes form tumors. To avoid these risks, uncultured SVF has emerged as an easier and safer way to use stem and progenitor cells (which are further along in the differentiation process) derived from adipose tissue. SVF comes from the disposable byproduct of liposuction.

However, no study had yet reported side-by-side comparisons of uncultured SVF and cultured ADSCs in treating ED. That was the objective of this study, led by Dalsan You, M.D., Ph.D., and Choung-Soo Kim, M.D., Ph.D., and their colleagues at the Asan Medical Center and University of Ulsan College of Medicine in Seoul, Korea. They tested the cells using 40 rats with and without injured CNs. One group of animals was injected with cultured ADSCs; one received uncultured SVF, and a control group received no stem cells. Four weeks later, both sources of stem cells had significantly improved the animals erection function over the control group. Also, both stem cell types significantly increased the number of nNOS-positive nerve fibers, suggesting that they stimulated nerve regeneration.

However, Dr. Kim said, the cells coming from uncultured SVF outperformed the cultured ADSCs in terms of smooth muscle/collagen ratio and endothelial cell content in the blood vessels, which are also important factors in repairing ED.

Further research is now ongoing to determine the optimal protocol for cellular therapy of ED following CN injury, Dr. You added. We want to follow the progress of the animals over the long term and also we want to see what happens with multiple stem cell injections, rather than just the one given in this study.

This first study to compare two types of cells derived from fat tissue in a rat model of erectile dysfunction after prostate cancer surgery is an important step in identifying effective new treatments for this condition, said Anthony Atala, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

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Study Shows Liposuction Byproduct Could Lead to ED Cure

UM stem cell research on heart may go national

By Stem Cell Medicine

Written by Lidia Dinkova on March 18, 2015

University of Miami stem cell research on generating healthy heart tissue in heart attack survivors is on track to be tested across the US.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of federal medical research arm the National Institutes of Health, is to fund the $8 million cost if the trial wins necessary approvals.

The trial, the first of this research in humans, is a step toward restoring full heart function in heart attack survivors.

The research developed at the UM Miller School of Medicines Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute is on combining two types of stem cells to generate healthy heart tissue in heart attack survivors. Scientists have in the past studied using one type of stem cell at a time, a method thats worked OK, said Dr. Joshua Hare, founding director of the UM stem cell institute.

But UM research shows that combining two types of stem cells expedites healing and regeneration of healthy heart muscle.

We could remove twice the scar tissue than with either cell alone, Dr. Hare said. We had some scientific information that they actually interacted and worked together, so we tested that. It worked.

Researchers combined mesenchymal stem cells, usually generated from human bone marrow, and cardiac stem cells, isolated from a mammals heart.

Stem cells are cells that havent matured to specialize to work in a particular part of the body, such as the heart. Because these cells are in a way nascent, they have the potential to become specialized for a particular body function.

Doctors have been using stem cells to regenerate lost tissue from bones to heart muscle. The mesenchymal and cardiac stem cells each work well in generating healthy heart tissue in heart attack survivors, Dr. Hare said. Combining them expedites the process, according to the UM research.

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UM stem cell research on heart may go national

Boston Stem Cell Biotech Start-up Asymmetrex Will Present Essential Technologies for Stem Cell Medical Engineering at …

By Uncategorized

Boston, MA (PRWEB) March 18, 2015

In the vast flow of new scientific research, discoveries, and information, it is not uncommon for important scientific advances to go unappreciated, or even just unnoticed, for surprisingly long periods of time. The Boston stem cell medicine technology start-up company, Asymmetrex is working to make sure that its growing portfolio of adult tissue stem cell technology patents obtains wide notice, appreciation, and investment.

In late 2014, the company started a digital media campaign to achieve greater visibility for its patented technologies that address the major barriers to greater progress in stem cell medicine. These include technologies for identifying, counting, and mass-producing adult tissue stem cells. The two presentations scheduled for the 5th World Congress on Cell and Stem Cell Research in Chicago continue Asymmetrexs efforts to better inform medical, research, and industrial communities focused on advancing stem cell medicine of the companys vision for implementation of its unique technologies.

Asymmetrex holds patents for the only method described for routine production of natural human tissue stem cells that retain their normal function. The company also holds patents for biomarkers that can be used to count tissue stem cells for the first time. The companys most recently developed technology was invented with computer-simulation leader, AlphaSTAR Corporation. In partnership, the two companies created a first-of-its-kind method for monitoring adult tissue stem cell number and function for any human tissue that can be cultured. This advance is the basis for the two companies AlphaSTEM technology for detecting adult tissue stem cell-toxic drug candidates before conventional preclinical testing in animals or clinical trials. Asymmetrex and AlphaSTAR plan to market the new technology to pharmaceutical companies. The implementation of AlphaSTEM technology would accelerate drug development and reduce adverse drug events for volunteers and patients. At full capacity use, AlphaSTEM could reduce U.S. drug development costs by $4-5 billion each year.

About Asymmetrex (http://asymmetrex.com/)

Asymmetrex, LLC is a Massachusetts life sciences company with a focus on developing technologies to advance stem cell medicine. Asymmetrexs founder and director, James L. Sherley, M.D., Ph.D. is an internationally recognized expert on the unique properties of adult tissue stem cells. The companys patent portfolio contains biotechnologies that solve the two main technical problems production and quantification that have stood in the way of successful commercialization of human adult tissue stem cells for regenerative medicine and drug development. In addition, the portfolio includes novel technologies for isolating cancer stem cells and producing induced pluripotent stem cells for disease research purposes. Currently, Asymmetrexs focus is employing its technological advantages to develop facile methods for monitoring adult stem cell number and function in clinically important human tissues.

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Boston Stem Cell Biotech Start-up Asymmetrex Will Present Essential Technologies for Stem Cell Medical Engineering at ...

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