Stem Cell Clinic

Montreal woman desperately seeks Vietnamese stem cell donors

By Stem Cell Treatment

Leukemia patient Mai Duong is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant -- something doctors say the Montreal resident requires within a matter of weeks.

While finding a well-matched stem cell donor is already a difficult task, the 34-year-old mother of one faces an added challenge: shes Vietnamese.

Duong was first diagnosed with acute leukemia in 2013, when she was 15 weeks pregnant with her second child. She was forced to terminate the pregnancy as she underwent seven months of chemotherapy, putting her cancer into remission for seven months.

But it returned in May, and doctors gave her two months to find a stem cell match.

"The only option for me to get cured is with the generosity of people," she says.

Duongs case is raising the alarm about a need for stem cell donors among Canada's minority groups, as those in need of transplants are more likely to find a donor from the same ethnic background.

Canadian Blood Services says less than 25 per cent of individuals in need of a stem cell transplant will be able to find a match within their own families and will have to turn to the public inthe hopes of finding a suitable donor.

But ethnic minorities are under-represented on donor lists in North America.

Less than one per cent of registered stem cell donors in Quebec are of South Asian descent, according to Hema-Quebec, the provinces blood services agency. The statistics are similar across Canada and in the international donor database.

"There is a cultural effect and religious effect," spokesperson Susie Joron told CTV News. "The other issue is that the biggest registries are in America and Germany, which has a big Caucasian population."

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Montreal woman desperately seeks Vietnamese stem cell donors

Montreal woman pleading with B.C. residents to save her life

By Stem Cell Doctors

VANCOUVER Mai Duong, 34, only has six weeksleft to get a life-saving stem cell or bone marrow transplant and shes pleading with the Lower Mainlands Asian population tosave her.

The mother of one was born and raised in Montreal. Shes had good health for most of her life, until she was diagnosed with leukemia in January 2013, while pregnant with her second child. Doctors told her she had to terminate the pregnancy she was at 15 weeks and start chemotherapy immediately.

Duongwent into remission, but ten months later the cancer was back. And this time it was more aggressive and chemotherapy wouldnt work, she was told. Instead, she needed stem cells or a bone marrow transplant.

Even though Im on the international registry list for donors, I did not have a match for the bone marrow. I was devastated when they told me that, she toldGlobal News.

It turns out the problem of finding a match, and a perfect one at that, is more common among those of Asian descent. In 2012, 2-year-old Jeremy Kong of San Francisco was diagnosed with leukemia and couldnt find a match until he went public. After doing so, he found a nine out of tenbone marrow donor match and underwent a transplant, but died a year later. Experts say Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino and other South Asian populations are behind Caucasians when it comes to donating blood and organs.

Were severely underrepresented in the international list. So its not even a local or a national problem; its a global problem, said Duong.

Duong is turning to Vancouver because of its large Asian population, and urging people to get tested. She needs a donor of Vietnamese or Filipino descent for a perfect match, and she needs to find them within six weeks or its unlikely shell survive.

For more information on how you can help Duong, visit her Facebook pageor websiteand get tested at OneMatch.ca.

With files from Darlene Heidemann.

Shaw Media, 2014

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Montreal woman pleading with B.C. residents to save her life

Interleukin-10 aids survival of cells transplanted to repair cardiac tissues after MI

By Uncategorized

The long-term, positive benefits of transplanted allogenic (other-donated) smooth muscle cells (SMCs) to repair cardiac tissues after myocardial infarction (MI) have been enhanced by the addition of interleukin 10 (IL-10) to the transplanted cells, report researchers in Canada. Their study with rats modeled with MI has shown that SMCs modified with IL-10 - a small, anti-inflammatory protein - benefitted cell survival, improved heart function, and also provided protection against the host's rejection of the allogenic SMCs.

The study will be published in a future issue of Cell Transplantation.

Three groups of rats modeled with MI were treated with SMC injections into the MI-damaged area of the heart. One group received unmodified autologous (self-donated) SMCs; a second group received unmodified allogenic (other-donated) SMCs; the third group received allogenic SMCs modified with IL-10. After three weeks, the unmodified autologous cells had engrafted while the unmodified allogenic cells had been rejected by the hosts. However, the IL-10-modified allogenic cells were found to greatly improve cell survival, improve ventricular function, increase myocardial wall thickness, and also prevent host immune response and rejection of the foreign cells.

"While the most appropriate cell type for cardiac repair remains controversial, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that have been differentiated toward myogenic cells restore ventricular function better, as previous studies have shown," said study co-author Ren-Ke Li of the MaRS Centre in Toronto, Canada. "This study demonstrated that IL-10 gene-enhanced cell therapy prevented immune response, increased survival of SMCs in the heart, and improved cardiac function when compared to the results with the control groups."

The researchers noted that while the use of autologous SMCs donated by patients may be optimal for cell therapy, SMCs self-donated by older, debilitated patients who likely have other serious health problems, have limited regenerative capability. Thus, allogenic SMCs from young, healthy donors are the most beneficial cells, but rejection of foreign cells by the host has been a problem in allogenic cell transplantation. This study suggests that the use of allogenic SMCs modified with IL-10 can prevent host rejection.

"Future studies will be required to determine the long-term effects of IL-10 transduced SMCs to evaluate cell survival and cardiac function at six months and one year," concluded the researchers.

"The use of IL-10 overexpression to reduce rejection of allogenic SMCs is an interesting idea" said Dr. Amit N. Patel, director of cardiovascular regenerative medicine at the University of Utah and section editor for Cell Transplantation. "Further studies will help to determine if this manipulation could prove useful for translation of allogenic SMC therapies to humans".

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The above story is based on materials provided by Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Interleukin-10 aids survival of cells transplanted to repair cardiac tissues after MI

Weekends with Engadget: Tokyo's vending machines, new buyer's guides and more!

By Stem Cell Treatment

This week, we learned about the dangers of stem cell treatment, explored the world of 3D motion capture and went on a vending machine shopping spree in Tokyo. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last seven days. Oh, and be sure to subscribe to our Flipboard magazine!

Stem cells have the potential to be one of modern medicine's most promising advances and we're still learning a lot about how they work. A paralyzed woman in the US discovered this, after an experimental treatment caused her to grow a nose-like tumor on her back.

The virtual simians in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes are impressively lifelike, but 3D motion capture animations haven't always been so awe-inspiring. Read on as Steve Dent explains the history behind this century-old technique.

If you've ever had to break in a new baseball glove, you know that the process take time -- usually a few months at best. Not so with Nike's new fielding mitt.

Why is it so hard to buy a Tesla? It's a combination of archaic laws and a stubborn automotive industry.

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Weekends with Engadget: Tokyo's vending machines, new buyer's guides and more!

ViaCyte files investigational new drug application and device master file with FDA for novel cell replacement therapy …

By Stem Cell Treatment

Published 18 July 2014

ViaCyte a privately held regenerative medicine company developing a cell replacement therapy for the treatment of diabetes, announced that it has filed an Investigational New Drug application (IND) with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking to initiate a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with type 1 diabetes.

The trial would evaluate the safety and efficacy of ViaCyte's VC-01 product candidate, a stem cell-derived, encapsulated cell replacement therapy. In a related development, ViaCyte submitted a Medical Device Master File (called MAF) to the FDA in support of the Encaptra drug delivery system, the device component of the VC-01 product candidate.

"The filing of this IND represents the culmination of many years of research and development by a dedicated team focused on developing a cell replacement therapy for patients with type 1 diabetes and advancing our VC-01 product candidate to human clinical trials," said Paul Laikind, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of ViaCyte. "The ViaCyte team has been assisted and supported by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) a leading organization focused on advancing the field of stem cell-based technologies, and JDRF, the leading advocacy organization for patients with type 1 diabetes," added Dr. Laikind.

ViaCyte's VC-01 product candidate consists of pancreatic progenitor cells, called PEC-01 cells, which are derived from a proprietary human embryonic stem cell line. These cells are then encapsulated by use of ViaCyte's Encaptra device. When implanted under the skin, the PEC-01 cells are designed to mature and further differentiate into insulin-producing beta and other endocrine cells that regulate blood glucose in a manner similar or identical to the normal islets that comprise the endocrine pancreas.

Based on a pre-IND meeting with the FDA and subsequent consultations, ViaCyte is proposing to initiate clinical evaluation of the VC-01 product candidate directly in patients with type 1 diabetes who have minimal to no insulin-producing beta cell function. In addition to evaluating the safety of the product candidate in these patients, the study is designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the VC-01 product candidate in replacing lost endocrine function that is central to the disease.

In the proposed clinical trial, insulin production from the VC-01 implant would be assessed by measuring C-peptide, a biomarker for insulin produced by beta cells that is expected to provide a sensitive measure of efficacy in these patients. As proposed, the trial would also evaluate secondary end-points related to the need for administration of pharmaceutical insulin to control the disease and the incidence of hypoglycemia, a common side effect associated with pharmaceutical insulin usage.

ViaCyte's proprietary Encaptra device is designed to contain the implanted cells, preventing biodistribution, as well as shielding them from the immune system. Although PEC-01 cells are human cells, they are not the patient's actual cells. As such, they are considered an allogeneic graft, which typically requires immunosuppression in order for the recipient to tolerate the implant. However, the Encaptra device is designed to prevent the patient's immune system from accessing the implanted cells, thereby facilitating successful engraftment and subsequent maturation to islets.

The VC-01 product candidate is designed to be placed under the skin of the patient and can be monitored and readily removed, if or when required. The option to remove the cells is designed to provide an important safety benefit for this novel stem cell-derived cell therapy candidate. It is being regulated as a biologic through interaction with the Office of Cell, Tissue and Gene Therapy within CBER at the FDA. Given the combination product nature of the product candidate, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the FDA is also involved in its regulation.

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ViaCyte files investigational new drug application and device master file with FDA for novel cell replacement therapy ...

Okyanos Heart Institute Live on 850 WFTL: Adult Stem Cell Therapy for Heart Disease – Video

By Stem Cell Treatment


Okyanos Heart Institute Live on 850 WFTL: Adult Stem Cell Therapy for Heart Disease
Okyanos #39; Chief Medical Officer Dr. Howard (Bo) Walpole and Chief Science Officer sat down with Karen Curtis at 850 WFTL in Ft. Lauderdale to discuss the promise of adult stem cell therapy as...

By: Okyanos Heart Institute

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Okyanos Heart Institute Live on 850 WFTL: Adult Stem Cell Therapy for Heart Disease - Video

Conflicts of interest pervasive on California stem cell board

By Stem Cell Treatment

There's no good time for a public agency to be embroiled in a conflict-of-interest scandal, but this is an especially delicate time for California's stem cell agency.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, as the program is known formally, is on track to finish doling out its $3 billion in funding from the state's voters as soon as 2017. Its original sponsor, Northern California real estate developer Robert Klein II, has been quoted talking about another $5-billion infusion, perhaps via the 2016 ballot.

Any such effort will refocus attention on the program board's inherent conflicts of interest, which were baked in by the terms of Proposition 71, Klein's 2004 ballot initiative that created CIRM and funded it through a bond issue. The prestigious Institute of Medicine in a 2012 report found these conflicts to lead to questions about "the integrity and independence of some of CIRM's decisions."

And now here comes another case. This one involves CIRM former President Alan Trounson, an Australian biologist who left the agency on June 30 and joined the board of one of its highest-profile financial partners a mere seven days later. Trounson's new employer, Stem Cells Inc., is the recipient of a nearly $20-million loan for Alzheimer's research.

CIRM says Trounson's quick move to Stem Cells Inc., where he'll receive a stipend of at least $90,000 a year, is legally "permissible." But officials there acknowledge they were blindsided; the agency learned about Trounson's new position from the company's press release.

Afterward, CIRM rushed out a statement acknowledging that Trounson's appointment to the board of a CIRM loan recipient "creates a serious risk of a conflict of interest." The agency says it will place the relationship between CIRM and the company under "a full review." Administrators reminded Trounson, board members and agency staff that state law bars him from communicating with them on any administrative matter involving Stem Cells Inc. The company declined to comment.

The relationship already reeked of cronyism. As we reported in 2012, the Newark, Calif.-based firm's co-founder, Irving Weissman, director of Stanford University's Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, had been one of the most prominent and outspoken supporters of Proposition 71.

He's also a leading recipient of CIRM funding, listed as the principal investigator on four Stanford grants totaling nearly $35 million. CIRM contributed $43.6 million toward the construction of his institute's $200-million research building at the Stanford campus. Weissman and his wife, Ann Tsukamoto, owned nearly 380,000 shares of the firm as of last April, according to a corporate disclosure. Tsukamoto is one of the company's top executives; Weissman is a board member.

Trounson's move comes as CIRM must begin looking to the future, but any discussions about extending the agency's life span will have to address the flaws created by Proposition 71. Among them is the program's very structure, and even its scientific goals.

Klein's ballot proposition exempts CIRM from virtually any oversight or accountability. Each of the 29 governing board members has to be associated with a California public or private research institution or company, or an advocacy group for patients of one disease or another. The qualifications for board chairman are so specific they initially yielded a single credible candidate: Bob Klein.

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Conflicts of interest pervasive on California stem cell board

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