Some NFL Players Use Unproven Stem Cell Therapies: Report

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MONDAY, Dec. 8, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Some professional football players are seeking unproven stem cell therapies to speed their recovery from injuries. But experts are concerned that they may be unaware of the potential risks, a new report shows.

Stem cell therapy has attracted the attention of elite athletes. A number of National Football League (NFL) players have highlighted their use of those therapies and their successful recoveries.

Twelve NFL players are known to have received unapproved stem cell treatments since 2009.

"The online data on NFL players and the clinics where they obtained treatment suggest that players may be unaware of the risks they are taking," report co-author Kirstin Matthews, a fellow in science and technology policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, said in a university news release.

"Players who are official spokespersons for these clinics could influence others to view the therapies as safe and effective despite the lack of scientific research to support these claims," she added.

Most of the players receive treatment in the United States, but several have gone to other countries for stem cell therapies that aren't available in the United States.

"With the rise of new and unproven stem cell treatments, the NFL faces a daunting task of trying to better understand and regulate the use of these therapies in order to protect the health of its players," Matthews said.

The NFL and other sports leagues may need to evaluate and possibly regulate stem cell therapies in order to ensure the safety of their players, the report authors suggested.

The paper appears in a special supplement to the journal Stem Cells and Development.

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Some NFL Players Use Unproven Stem Cell Therapies: Report

Can A Pill Help To Shed Fat?

Image Caption: Harvard researchers have created a system using human stem cells to screen for compounds that have the potential to turn white, or bad, fat cells into brown, or good, fat cells. Pictured are human pluripotent stem cell-derived fat cells. Credit: Tim Ahfeldt/Harvard University

Provided by B. D. Colen, Harvard University

Harvard stem cell researchers say they finally can turn bad fat into good

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have taken what they describe as the first step toward a pill that can replace the treadmill for the control of obesity, though that shift, of course, would not provide all of the many benefits of exercise.

HSCI principal faculty member Chad Cowan and his team members at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a Harvard affiliate, say they have created a system using human stem cells to screen for compounds that have the potential to turn white, or bad, fat cells into brown, or good, fat cells, and have already identified two compounds that can accomplish that in human cells.

The path from these findings to a safe and effective medication may not be easy, and the findings will have to be replicated by other research groups, as well as refined, before they could lead to a clinical treatment.

However, Cowan said that the two compounds discovered so far target the same molecule, and that molecule plays a role in the inflammatory response. So if you administered them for a long time, the person taking them could become immune-compromised, which argues against the use of these initial compounds without modifications. One, however, is already on the market, as a treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for rheumatoid arthritis.

White fat cells store energy as lipids and play a role in the development of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and related conditions, including heart disease, while brown fat has been shown in mice to lower triglyceride levels, reduce the insulin resistance associated with type 2 diabetes, and burn white fat.

When the body takes in excess energy, it is stored as lipids in white fat cells. When there are too many calories coming in and not enough burned, adult stem cells in the body produce more white fat cells, adding to a persons burden of fat.

Cowans group has found two small molecules that convert fat stem cells, which normally would produce white fat, into brown-like fat cells. These brown-like fat cells burn excess energy and thereby reduce the size and numbers of white fat cells.

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Can A Pill Help To Shed Fat?

Some NFL players use unproven stem cell therapies

MONDAY, Dec. 8, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Some professional football players are seeking unproven stem cell therapies to speed their recovery from injuries. But experts are concerned that they may be unaware of the potential risks, a new report shows.

Stem cell therapy has attracted the attention of elite athletes. A number of National Football League (NFL) players have highlighted their use of those therapies and their successful recoveries.

Twelve NFL players are known to have received unapproved stem cell treatments since 2009.

"The online data on NFL players and the clinics where they obtained treatment suggest that players may be unaware of the risks they are taking," report co-author Kirstin Matthews, a fellow in science and technology policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, said in a university news release.

"Players who are official spokespersons for these clinics could influence others to view the therapies as safe and effective despite the lack of scientific research to support these claims," she added.

Most of the players receive treatment in the United States, but several have gone to other countries for stem cell therapies that aren't available in the United States.

"With the rise of new and unproven stem cell treatments, the NFL faces a daunting task of trying to better understand and regulate the use of these therapies in order to protect the health of its players," Matthews said.

The NFL and other sports leagues may need to evaluate and possibly regulate stem cell therapies in order to ensure the safety of their players, the report authors suggested.

The paper appears in a special supplement to the journal Stem Cells and Development.

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Some NFL players use unproven stem cell therapies

Family doctor a womans ticket for coming home

Ingrid Steppan with Dr. Harry Atkins

image credit: For the Townsman

Trying to find a family doctor isn't a new challenge for people living in rural communities, but for Ingrid Steppan, it is the ticket for coming home.

Steppan is currently in Ottawa recovering from a stem-cell transplant after a four-year battle with an extremely rare disease. Though she has needed specialized treatment that required her to seek care in Ottawa, she is hopeful she can return home to continue her recovery.

However, she needs access to a family doctor to supervise her condition in order to make the move back to Cranbrook, according to her daughter Kyla Beauchamp.

Steppan has been battling stiff-person syndrome a disease with symptoms including convulsions, muscle rigidity and impaired mobility but a new treatment has dramatically improved her condition.

After symptoms began in 2008, she was told by doctors that there was no cure and that she would probably die. She bought a house in Saskatchewan to spend the remaining time she had left closer to extended family.

While in Saskatchewan, another doctor convinced her to seek out more specialized treatment in Ottawa. There, she met Dr. Harry Atkins, a bone-marrow transplant specialist with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, who performed a autologous stem-cell transplant, along with a group of other specialists.

The operation, which has traditionally been used to treat leukaemia, involves purifying blood-forming stem cells and reintroducing them into the body after knocking out the immune system.

Atkins has performed two similar operations on two other patients, with both those cases going into remission.

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Family doctor a womans ticket for coming home

Microsoft billionaire takes on cell biology

Allen Institute

Paul Allens latest philanthropic endeavour will be modelled on his successful brain institute.

Billionaire businessman and philanthropist Paul Allen plans to pump US$100million into investigating the most basic unit of life the cell.

The Allen Institute for Cell Science, which was launched on 8 December, will be modelled on the Microsoft co-founders Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington, which since 2003 has spent hundreds of millions of dollars creating a series of brain atlases that have become go-to portals for neuroscientists interested in where particular genes are active or how distant neurons communicate.

As its first project, the latest Allen institute will develop an analogous cell observatory that will display how a cells working parts, such as ribosomes, microtubules and mitochondria, interact and operate over time, says executive director Rick Horwitz. He has shuttered his cell-biology laboratory at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville to lead the institute in Seattle, Washington. The 70 or so scientific staff who will join the institute will work together on the overall goals of the observatory to build a global view of the myriad activities inside cells rather than on their own interests. Its going to be much more like the Manhattan Project, Horwitz says.

Allen Institute

Rick Horwitz shut down his lab at the University of Virginia to lead the Allen Institute for Cell Science.

Mapping every little detail of every kind of cell is a tall order, even with the backing of the worlds 27th richest person. Our problem is that this thing could blow up on us. It could be very, very big, Horwitz says. Were going to make judicious decisions to try to contain it.

Some of those choices have already been made, after meetings this year with leading cell biologists. The institute will study human induced pluripotent stem cells (cells coaxed into an embryonic stem-cell-like state) as they differentiate in the lab into two cell types: heart-muscle cells called cardiomyocytes; and the epithelial cells that line body cavities. These tissues were chosen as much for their relevance to disease cardiomyocytes malfunction in heart disease and most cancers arise in epithelial tissues as for the ease with which they can be reproducibly generated and grown in the lab.

The institutes plan is to engineer many different cell lines and determine how different cellular components respond to stimuli such as infection or exposure to a drug. These data will then guide the construction of computer models aimed at predicting how cells operate under various conditions, and all the information gained will be made available online. The institute will also distribute its cell lines so that other scientists can build on its work.

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Microsoft billionaire takes on cell biology

Billionaire Paul Allen Pledges Millions for Cell Science

Software billionaire Paul Allen says he's committing $100 million to create a new institute in Seattle focusing on the mechanics of human cell biology.

The Allen Institute for Cell Science's first project, the Allen Cell Observatory, will focus on creating computational models for the kinds of induced pluripotent stem cells, or IPS cells, that have the ability to turn into heart muscle cells or the epithelial cells that form the inner linings of organs as well as skin.

Such cells hold promise for facilitating research into how cells become diseased, and potentially for growing replacement tissues.

"Cells are the fundamental units of life, with every disease we know of affecting particular types of cells," Allen said in a news release. "Scientists have learned a great deal about many of the 50 trillion cells in our bodies over the last decades, but creating a comprehensive, predictive model of the cell will require a different approach."

The Allen Cell Observatory's goal is to produce a dynamic, visual database and animated models of cell parts in action. Such models could shed light on the processes by which genetic information is translated into cellular functions, and reveal what goes wrong in a diseased cell. That, in turn, could help researchers predict which therapies will work best to counter diseases, or perhaps head off the disease in the first place.

Allen's latest philanthropic venture was unveiled Monday at the American Society for Cell Biology's annual meeting in Philadelphia. It follows up on plans that the co-founder of Microsoft has had in mind for years.

"It's the right time to start a big initiative in cell biology: understanding how cells work, understanding the detailed things that happen inside cells, which is behind cancer and Alzheimer's and all those things," Allen told NBC News last year.

Software billionaire Paul Allen's latest philanthropic project is a $100 million commitment to create the Allen Institute for Cell Science.

Paul Allen's net worth is estimated at more than $17 billion. Over the past 15 years, he has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to scientific projects including the Allen Telescope Array, the Allen Institute for Brain Science and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Last month, he said he would contribute $100 million to the global fight against the Ebola virus. (Allen also owns somewhat less-scientific ventures, such as the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers.)

The cell science institute will be housed in the seven-story Allen Institute headquarters building that is currently under construction in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood. The building is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2015, and will also house the Allen Brain Institute.

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Billionaire Paul Allen Pledges Millions for Cell Science

Stem cell transplant without radiation or chemotherapy pre-treatment shows promise

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

7-Dec-2014

Contact: Irene Sege irene.sege@childrens.harvard.edu 617-919-3110 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute @DanaFarber

SAN FRANCISCO (DECEMBER 7, 2014) - Researchers at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center report promising outcomes from a clinical trial with patients with a rare form of bone marrow failure who received a hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) after pre-treatment with immunosuppressive drugs only. This is the first trial reporting successful transplant in dyskeratosis congenita (DC) patients without the use of any radiation or conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy beforehand.

The trial's data were presented by study authors Leslie Lehmann, MD, and Suneet Agarwal, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber/Boston Children's, at the 56th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (abstract #2941). The data suggest that this immunosuppression-only approach could benefit patients with DC--and, perhaps, other bone marrow failure syndromes--who are at high risk of poor transplant outcomes because they cannot tolerate the toxicity of conventional or even reduced-intensity conditioning.

All four participants in the study are alive and well between 10 and 27 months after transplant. None remain dependent on transfusions to maintain blood counts, nor did any experience significant unexpected toxicities or infections during or after transplantation. Were it not for this new regimen, one patient would have been ineligible for transplant due to severe DC-related lung disease.

Conventional transplant conditioning employs radiation and/or high-dose cytotoxic drugs (also known as alkylators) to destroy the bone marrow and blood and immune cells; it also causes widespread cellular damage throughout the body. The process prepares the patient's body to accept the donated stem cells, reducing the risk of rejection and providing a hospitable environment for the new cells to engraft, thrive and produce new blood and immune cells.

In DC and other bone marrow failure syndromes, however, the disease itself already weakens or destroys the patient's bone marrow, raising the question of whether a less toxic approach could effectively condition patients for transplant.

"These data show that it is possible to achieve engraftment within the context of DC using immunosuppression-only conditioning. This experience begs the question of whether we can think more broadly about this approach's applicability for other conditions, something I think is worth considering," Agarwal said.

"Bone marrow failure syndromes are problems of blood and immune cell production," he added. "In theory, then, in some of these conditions it should be possible for healthy donated stem cells to outcompete native cells, without exposing patients to the toxic effects of radiation or alkylating agents."

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Stem cell transplant without radiation or chemotherapy pre-treatment shows promise