Stem-cell therapy restores faith for arthritic pets

ELLSWORTH Visitors to the Bellaire pet crisis center With a Little help From My Friends get an official welcome from Moka.

The Labrador retriever was found behind a Bellaire restaurant in 2011 and now serves as the centers mascot.

Peforming her duties has been increasingly difficult for the dog, who suffers from severe arthritis in her hips. So recently the center turned to Ellsworth veterinarian Christian Randall of North Country Veterinary Services, the first in northern Michigan to offer in-clinic adipose stem cell therapy.

The procedure uses a pets own blood and tissue to produce plasma-rich platelets and stem cells that proliferate growth in damaged areas.

Dormant stem cells are separated from adipose -- fat tissue -- and activated with an LED technology that uses three different wave lengths of light. Then the cells are injected directly into the affected area or administered intravenously to help promote regeneration. The result is a decrease in pain and lameness and increased range of motion.

Its using the bodys own repair cells to repair damage, said Trey Smith, director of laboratory services for MediVet America, which developed the technology Randall uses.

The therapy is the first treatment to help heal and slow the progression of osteoarthritis and degenerative joint disease rather than just cope with the symptoms, said Randall, who saw the results while studying at Virginia Equine Imaging and now plans to use it on equine as well as canine and feline patients.

It concentrates, speeds up and amplifies the bodys own healing power, he said.

Stem cell therapy has been around for a while, but in-clinic availability of the technology is new. Only a handful of veterinarians in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids offer the services, said Randall, who charges $1,800 to treat a dog or cat. Repeat injections are possible with banked plasma-rich platelets and stem cells.

Before the one-day procedure, veterinarians had to send blood and tissue to an outside lab for processing, a more costly three-day procedure that requires an animal's return visit to the vet for injection.

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Stem-cell therapy restores faith for arthritic pets

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Clinical trial studies vaccine targeting cancer stem cells in brain cancers

An early-phase clinical trial of an experimental vaccine that targets cancer stem cells in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and aggressive malignant brain tumor, has been launched by researchers at Cedars-Sinai's Department of Neurosurgery, Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Brain Tumor Center and Department of Neurology.

Like normal stem cells, cancer stem cells have the ability to self-renew and generate new cells, but instead of producing healthy cells, they create cancer cells. In theory, if the cancer stem cells can be destroyed, a tumor may not be able to sustain itself, but if the cancer originators are not removed or destroyed, a tumor will continue to return despite the use of existing cancer-killing therapies.

The Phase I study, which will enroll about 45 patients and last two years, evaluates safety and dosing of a vaccine created individually for each participant and designed to boost the immune system's natural ability to protect the body against foreign invaders called antigens. The drug targets a protein, CD133, found on cancer stem cells of some brain tumors and other cancers.

Immune system cells called dendritic cells will be derived from each patient's blood, combined with commercially prepared glioblastoma proteins and grown in the laboratory before being injected under the skin as a vaccine weekly for four weeks and then once every two months, according to Jeremy Rudnick, MD, neuro-oncologist in the Cedars-Sinai Department of Neurosurgery and Department of Neurology, the study's principal investigator.

Dendritic cells are the immune system's most powerful antigen-presenting cells -- those responsible for helping the immune system recognize invaders. By being loaded with specific protein fragments of CD133, the dendritic cells become "trained" to recognize the antigen as a target and stimulate an immune response when they come in contact.

The cancer stem cell study is the latest evolution in Cedars-Sinai's history of dendritic cell vaccine research, which was introduced experimentally in patient trials in 1998.

Cedars-Sinai's brain cancer stem cell study is open to patients whose glioblastoma multiforme has returned following surgical removal. Potential participants will be screened for eligibility requirements and undergo evaluations and medical tests at regular intervals. The vaccine and study-related tests and follow-up care will be provided at no cost to patients. For more information, call 1-800-CEDARS-1 or contact Cherry Sanchez by phone at 310-423-8100 or email cherry.sanchez@cshs.org.

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The above story is based on materials provided by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Clinical trial studies vaccine targeting cancer stem cells in brain cancers

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stem cell therapy treatment for cerebral palsy sri lanka by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india - Video

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Cedars-Sinai clinical trial studies vaccine targeting cancer stem cells in brain cancers

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

24-Jan-2014

Contact: Sandy Van sandy@prpacific.com 808-526-1708 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

LOS ANGELES (Jan. 24, 2014) An early-phase clinical trial of an experimental vaccine that targets cancer stem cells in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and aggressive malignant brain tumor, has been launched by researchers at Cedars-Sinai's Department of Neurosurgery, Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. Brain Tumor Center and Department of Neurology.

Like normal stem cells, cancer stem cells have the ability to self-renew and generate new cells, but instead of producing healthy cells, they create cancer cells. In theory, if the cancer stem cells can be destroyed, a tumor may not be able to sustain itself, but if the cancer originators are not removed or destroyed, a tumor will continue to return despite the use of existing cancer-killing therapies.

The Phase I study, which will enroll about 45 patients and last two years, evaluates safety and dosing of a vaccine created individually for each participant and designed to boost the immune system's natural ability to protect the body against foreign invaders called antigens. The drug targets a protein, CD133, found on cancer stem cells of some brain tumors and other cancers.

Immune system cells called dendritic cells will be derived from each patient's blood, combined with commercially prepared glioblastoma proteins and grown in the laboratory before being injected under the skin as a vaccine weekly for four weeks and then once every two months, according to Jeremy Rudnick, MD, neuro-oncologist in the Cedars-Sinai Department of Neurosurgery and Department of Neurology, the study's principal investigator.

Dendritic cells are the immune system's most powerful antigen-presenting cells those responsible for helping the immune system recognize invaders. By being loaded with specific protein fragments of CD133, the dendritic cells become "trained" to recognize the antigen as a target and stimulate an immune response when they come in contact.

The cancer stem cell study is the latest evolution in Cedars-Sinai's history of dendritic cell vaccine research, which was introduced experimentally in patient trials in 1998.

Cedars-Sinai's brain cancer stem cell study is open to patients whose glioblastoma multiforme has returned following surgical removal. Potential participants will be screened for eligibility requirements and undergo evaluations and medical tests at regular intervals. The vaccine and study-related tests and follow-up care will be provided at no cost to patients. For more information, call 1-800-CEDARS-1 or contact Cherry Sanchez by phone at 310-423-8100 or email cherry.sanchez@cshs.org.

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Cedars-Sinai clinical trial studies vaccine targeting cancer stem cells in brain cancers

Stem-cell company in crisis

PROFESSOR MIODRAG STOJKOVIC/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Advanced Cell Technology is running the only US trials of embryonic-stem-cell therapies.

Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), a biotechnology company based in Marlborough, Massachusetts, has long flirted with fame and bankruptcy.

The company is running the only US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved clinical trials of embryonic stem (ES)-cell therapies. Later this month, ACT plans to report preliminary results from three trials to test the safety of its treatment for two different forms of vision loss. If all goes well, it could be the first clinical demonstration of the safety and perhaps also the therapeutic potential of ES cells.

Yet a series of financial missteps could cost ACT the opportunity to see that potential become reality. On 22 January, the firm announced that its chief executive, Gary Rabin, was stepping down. The news came a month after ACT which had US$5.5 million in cash on-hand as of 30 September 2013 announced that it would pay $4 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charge alleging that the company had illegally sold billions of shares of stock.

Thats a big hit for any biotechnology company, says Gregory Bonfiglio, a venture capitalist with Proteus Venture Partners in Portola Valley, California. This is a very painful time for them.

ACT is accustomed to the pain: it has been running on fumes for years and has repeatedly skirted bankruptcy. The company announced this week that it aims to begin the next round of its clinical trials in the second half of 2014. But its last quarterly statement, which covered the period ending 30 September, revealed that the company had only enough funds to last into the second half of 2014. ACT spokesman David Schull says that the firm is exploring all financing options and plans to expand its clinical operations to accommodate the upcoming trials.

That financing may have to carry ACT through additional legal charges. The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission was just one of a string of cases ACT has handled over the past few years as it dealt with the legacy left by the fundraising schemes of its previous chief executive, William Caldwell. One such case is still pending, and the SEC has launched a separate investigation of Rabin for distributing stock without reporting it to the SEC in a timely fashion.

More recently, on 2 January, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) sued ACT for breach of contract. WARF, which handles patents and licensing for the University of Wisconsin, holds a number of key ES-cell patents, and ACT struck a licensing deal with the foundation in 2007. The case has been sealed, and lawyers representing WARF did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

ACT may soon have company in the clinic. The London Project to Cure Blindness has been developing an ES cellderived therapy to treat age-related macular degeneration, a leading form of vision loss in people aged 50 and older.

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Stem-cell company in crisis

Insulin-producing beta cells from stem cells

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

23-Jan-2014

Contact: Heiko Lickert heiko.lickert@helmholtz-muenchen.de 49-893-187-3760 Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen - German Research Center for Environmental Health

The findings of the scientists of the Institute of Diabetes and Regeneration Research (IDR) at Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen (HMGU) provide new insights into the molecular regulation of stem cell differentiation. These results reveal important target structures for regenerative therapy approaches to chronic diseases such as diabetes.

During embryonic development, organ-specific cell types are formed from pluripotent stem cells, which can differentiate into all cell types of the human body. The pluripotent cells of the embryo organize themselves at an early stage in germ layers: the endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm. From these three cell populations different functional tissue cells arise, such as skin cells, muscle cells, and specific organ cells.

Various signaling pathways are important for this germ layer organization, including the Wnt/-catenin signaling pathway. The cells of the pancreas, such as the beta cells, originate from the endoderm, the germ layer from which the gastrointestinal tract, the liver and the lungs also arise. Professor Heiko Lickert, director of the IDR, in collaboration with Professor Gunnar Schotta of LMU Mnchen, showed that the Wnt/-catenin signaling pathway regulates Sox17, which in turn regulates molecular programs that assign pluripotent cells to the endoderm, thus inducing an initial differentiation of the stem cells.

In another project Professor Lickert and his colleague Professor Fabian Theis, director of the Institute of Computational Biology (ICB) at Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen, discovered an additional mechanism that influences the progenitor cells. miRNA-335, a messenger nucleic acid, regulates the endodermal transcription factors Sox17 and Foxa2 and is essential for the differentiation of cells within this germ layer and their demarcation from the adjacent mesoderm. The concentrations of the transcription factors determine here whether these cells develop into lung, liver or pancreas cells. To achieve these results, the scientists combined their expertise in experimental research with mathematical modeling.

"Our findings represent two key processes of stem cell differentiation," said Lickert. "With an improved understanding of cell formation we can succeed in generating functional specialized cells from stem cells. These could be used for a variety of therapeutic approaches. In diabetes, we may be able to replace the defective beta cells, but regenerative medicine also offers new therapeutic options for other organ defects and diseases."

Diabetes is characterized by a dysfunction of the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. Regenerative treatment approaches aim to renew or replace these cells. An EU-funded research project ('HumEn'), in which Lickert and his team are participating, shall provide further insights in the field of beta-cell replacement therapy.

The aim of research at Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen, a partner in the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), is to develop new approaches for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of major common diseases such as diabetes mellitus.

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Insulin-producing beta cells from stem cells