Mirabai Vogt-James

Newswise UCLA researchers have discovered a new way to activate the stem cells in the hair follicle to make hair grow. The research, led by scientists Heather Christofk and William Lowry, may lead to new drugs that could promote hair growth for people with baldness or alopecia, which is hair loss associated with such factors as hormonal imbalance, stress, aging or chemotherapy treatment.

The researchwas publishedin the journal Nature Cell Biology.

Hair follicle stem cells are long-lived cells in the hair follicle; they are present in the skin and produce hair throughout a persons lifetime. They are quiescent, meaning they are normally inactive, but they quickly activate during a new hair cycle, which is when new hair growth occurs. The quiescence of hair follicle stem cells is regulated by many factors. In certain cases they fail to activate, which is what causes hair loss.

In this study, Christofk and Lowry, ofEli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, found that hair follicle stem cell metabolism is different from other cells of the skin. Cellular metabolism involves the breakdown of the nutrients needed for cells to divide, make energy and respond to their environment. The process of metabolism uses enzymes that alter these nutrients to produce metabolites. As hair follicle stem cells consume the nutrient glucose a form of sugar from the bloodstream, they process the glucose to eventually produce a metabolite called pyruvate. The cells then can either send pyruvate to their mitochondria the part of the cell that creates energy or can convert pyruvate into another metabolite called lactate.

Our observations about hair follicle stem cell metabolism prompted us to examine whether genetically diminishing the entry of pyruvate into the mitochondria would force hair follicle stem cells to make more lactate, and if that would activate the cells and grow hair more quickly, said Christofk, an associate professor of biological chemistry and molecular and medical pharmacology.

The research team first blocked the production of lactate genetically in mice and showed that this prevented hair follicle stem cell activation. Conversely, in collaboration with the Rutter lab at University of Utah, they increased lactate production genetically in the mice and this accelerated hair follicle stem cell activation, increasing the hair cycle.

Before this, no one knew that increasing or decreasing the lactate would have an effect on hair follicle stem cells, said Lowry, a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology. Once we saw how altering lactate production in the mice influenced hair growth, it led us to look for potential drugs that could be applied to the skin and have the same effect.

The team identified two drugs that, when applied to the skin of mice, influenced hair follicle stem cells in distinct ways to promote lactate production. The first drug, called RCGD423, activates a cellular signaling pathway called JAK-Stat, which transmits information from outside the cell to the nucleus of the cell. The research showed that JAK-Stat activation leads to the increased production of lactate and this in turn drives hair follicle stem cell activation and quicker hair growth. The other drug, called UK5099, blocks pyruvate from entering the mitochondria, which forces the production of lactate in the hair follicle stem cells and accelerates hair growth in mice.

Through this study, we gained a lot of interesting insight into new ways to activate stem cells, said Aimee Flores, a predoctoral trainee in Lowrys lab and first author of the study. The idea of using drugs to stimulate hair growth through hair follicle stem cells is very promising given how many millions of people, both men and women, deal with hair loss. I think weve only just begun to understand the critical role metabolism plays in hair growth and stem cells in general; Im looking forward to the potential application of these new findings for hair loss and beyond.

The use of RCGD423 to promote hair growth is covered by a provisional patent application filed by the UCLA Technology Development Group on behalf of UC Regents. The use of UK5099 to promote hair growth is covered by a separate provisional patent filed by the UCLA Technology Development Group on behalf of UC Regents, with Lowry and Christofk as inventors.

The experimental drugs described above were used in preclinical tests only and have not been tested in humans or approved by the Food and Drug Administration as safe and effective for use in humans.

The research was supported by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine training grant, a New Idea Award from the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, the National Cancer Institute (R25T CA098010), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01-GM081686 and R01-GM0866465), the National Institutes of Health (RO1GM094232), an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant (RSG-16-111-01-MPC), the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (5R01AR57409), a Rose Hills Foundation Research Award and the Gaba Fund; the Rose Hills award and the Gaba Fund are administered through the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center.

Further research on the use of UK5099 is being funded by the UCLA Technology Development Group through funds fromCalifornia State Assembly Bill 2664.

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UCLA Scientists Identify a New Way to Activate Stem Cells to Make Hair Grow - Newswise (press release)

Cuorips, a Japan-based cardiac therapy developer spun out from Osaka University, has secured an undisclosed amount from pharmaceutical firm Daiichi Sankyo.

The investment was made as part of an agreement that gives the corporate an option right for the worldwide commercialisation of Cuorips technology, called iPS-derived cardiomyocyte sheet, a cell therapy for patients suffering from severe heart failure.

The treatment uses induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which can be generated directly from a donors mature cells and differentiated into any organ. It offers an alternative to patients who would otherwise require a heart or artificial heart transplant.

The technology is based on research led by Yoshiki Sawa, professor at the Graduate School of Medicines Department of Cardiovascular Surgery.

Sawa developed the therapy through his participation in the Research Center Network for Realization of Regenerative Medicine, operated by the research organisation Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development.

Cuorips is currently gearing up for clinical research and an investigator-initiated clinical trial.

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Daiichi Sankyo hearts Cuorips - Global University Venturing

Advancellssays its stem cell-based therapy completely reversed multiple sclerosis (MS) in an Indian pilot trial with only one MS patient.

The patient, Rahul Gupta, was diagnosed with MS seven years ago and has since suffered multiple relapses. His disease was progressing fast and he was quickly losing his ability to walk. Gupta, who lives in New Zealand, approached Advancells a company based in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh that specializes in the use of stem cells for therapeutic purposes.

After my last relapse, I became determined to look for alternative treatments for multiple sclerosis,Gupta said in a press release. I started looking on the net and found that stem-cell therapy [offers] hope for people suffering with MS [and] that it is safe and would not harm me in any way. I was determined to undergo stem-cell treatment, as my illness was progressing very quickly.

Gupta enrolled inAdvancells adult stem-cell therapy program as the trials single patient. In the procedure carried outin June at a New Delhi clinic doctors isolated stem cells from his bone marrow and re-infused them back into the patientat specific points. Apart from this procedure, Gupta underwent only physiotherapy and a dietary routine.

Straight after the treatment I saw major improvements, he said. I could walk a lot better, could climb stairs which I was unable to do after 2012 and even go on the treadmill.

Dr. Lipi Singh, head of technology at Advancells, said the company is frequently approached by MS patients from around the world who want to participate in its program.

Patient selection is a key criterion for us and Rahul suited the criteria perfectly, Singh said. He is young and still at a moderate level of the disease and in a very positive frame of mind. Patients at this stage are best suited for this kind of treatment and thus we decided to accept him as a pilot case.

Singh now expects to review Guptas response sometime this fall.

It will take approximately three months for us to review changes in the magnetic resonance imaging of the patient, but the drastic changes in symptoms clearly are an indication of the fact that the treatment is working and could become a hope for millions of patients across the world who are suffering from this disease. Singh said.

He added: This is a good start to a lengthy research phase, but it seems that we are on the right track and hopefully we will be able to make a significant contribution in eradicating not only MS but a host of untreatable diseases existing today.

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India's Advancells Reports Successful Reversal of MS in Single Patient Using Stem Cell Therapy - Multiple Sclerosis News Today

Updated: August 9, 2017 12:44 pm

Every evening when Aadya watches children in the neighborhood play, my heart breaks. My daughter too was once an energetic presence rushing about. I know that Aadya longs to join them.

It started after Aadyas second birthday. She got high fever and rashes all over. The local doctor called it skin allergy and prescribed medicines. The fever persisted, and we sought another medical opinion.

The diagnosis was devastating. B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia a cancer that affects the immune system. Our only hope now lies in the contributions of caring strangers through ketto.org.

B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. Big sounding medical terms that we knew nothing about, but by the look on the doctors face, clearly it was serious.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia affects, breaks down the bodys ability to fight diseases. The cancer starts in the bone marrow, where new blood cells grow. These cells grow very fast and the bone marrows capacity to make normal cells is reduced.

The doctor said Aadya needed treatment immediately, or else the cancer would spread. From March to December 2016, she was under the care of Dr. Shweta Bansal at the Sir H.N.Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre in Mumbai. Ten months is a long time for a grown person. To watch our only child suffer through so many blood tests and chemotherapy treatments was very painful and difficult.

After ten months, the treatment ended and we were full of hope that Aadya would begin to recover. Then just four months later, in April 2017, we got the terrible news that the leukemia had relapsed. Since then, Aadya has been visiting the hospital for chemotherapy and tests, every 15-30 days.

Today Aadya is three years old and it hurts us to see her childhood being taken away. She barely eats, feels tired and weak all the time, and gets bruised easily. Even the slightest exposure to infection can be dangerous so we mostly keep her at home. She has missed many days of school and plays indoors. Any exposure to dust is dangerous so we have to make sure that her clothes, food, and toys are kept dust-free at all times.

Aadyas hope is a Bone Marrow Transplant, which costs a staggering Rs 25 lakh. We have started a fundraising page with ketto.org, counting on peoples sense of humanity to help us with this life-saving surgery.

So far we have spent Rs 15 lakh on Aadyas chemotherapy treatments, medications, and hospital visits. I am a housewife and my husband earns Rs 25,000 working as a back office employee. We are completely dependent on his salary and had to raise the money for the treatment by taking loans, borrowing from family members and friends and through insurance. All that we have managed to raise until now has been used up in the treatment.

A Bone Marrow Transplant surgery will replace Aadyas damaged bone marrow with healthy bone marrow stem cells, enabling her to lead a normal, healthy life. Her father is a matching and willing donor but we need to put together Rs 25 lakh in the next one month. We have no means of raising that kind of money.

For Aadya to survive, that operation has to be done in one months time. For over a year now, Aadya has been fighting a tough, long battle. Now there is hope that this operation will finally end her nightmare and lead to that one final miracle when we can take our baby home.

We have started a fundraising page with Ketto.org in Aadyas name, in the hope that people will come forward and help us raise the funds for this surgery.

Please help us pay for her BMT by logging on to Ketto.org.

Help us to bring Aadya home.

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Help my only child survive! - The Indian Express

The Potential of CRISPR

The potential of the gene editing toolCRISPRjust seems to keep growing and growing, and the latest experimental use of the technology is creating skin grafts that trigger the release of insulin and help manage diabetes.

Researchers have successfully tested the idea with mice that gained less weight and showed a reversed resistance to insulin because of the grafts (high insulin resistance is a common precursor to type 2 diabetes).

In fact, the team from the University of Chicago says the same approach could eventually be used to treat a variety of metabolic and genetic conditions, not just diabetes its a question of using skin cells to trigger different chemical reactions in the body.

We didnt cure diabetes, but it does provide a potential long-term and safe approach of using skin epidermal stem cells to help people with diabetes and obesity better maintain their glucose levels,says one of the researchers, Xiaoyang Wu.

If youre new to theCRISPR(Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) phenomenon, its a new and innovative way of editing specific genes in the body, using a biological copy and paste technique: it can doeverything fromcut out HIV virus DNA to slow thegrowth of cancer cells.

For this study, researchers used CRISPR to alter the gene responsible for encoding a hormone calledglucagon-like peptide-1(GLP-1), which triggers the release of insulin and then helps remove excess glucose from the blood.

Type 2 diabetescomes about due to a lack of insulin, also known as insulin resistance.

Using CRISPR, the GLP-1 gene could be tweaked to make its effects last longer than normal. The result was developed into skin grafts that were then applied to mice.

Around 80 percent of the grafts successfully released the edited hormone into the blood, regulating blood glucose levels over four months, as well as reversing insulin resistance and weight gain related to a high-fat diet.

Significantly, its the first time the skin graft approach has worked for mice not specially designed in the lab.

This paper is exciting for us because it is the first time we show engineered skin grafts can survive long term in wild-type mice, and we expect that in the near future this approach can be used as a safe option for the treatment of human patients,says Wu.

Human treatments will take time to develop but the good news is that scientists are today able to grow skin tissue very easily in the lab using stem cells, so that wont be an issue.

If we can make it safe, and patients are happy with the procedure, then the researchers say it could be extended to treat something likehaemophilia, where the body is unable to make blood clots properly.

Any kind of disease where the body is deficient in specific molecules could potentially be targeted by this new technique. And if it works with diabetes, it could be time to say goodbye to needles and insulin injections.

Other scientists who werent directly involved in the research, including Timothy Kieffer from the University of British Columbia in Canada, seem optimistic.

I do predict that gene and cell therapies will ultimately replace repeated injections for the treatment of chronic diseases, Kieffer told Rachel Baxter atNew Scientist.

The findings have been published inCell Stem Cell.

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CRISPR Skin Grafts Could Replace Insulin Shots For Diabetes - Futurism

Stem cell therapy has been claimed to cure cancer, improve chronic conditions such as headaches, and even make your skin look younger. How can that not be a good thing?

Youve probably heard about stem cell research before, but what exactly are stem cells, and how can stem cells injected into the body treat various diseases and conditions?

There has been enormous progress in this field over the last few decades, so let's take a look at how stem cell injections work.

What exactly are stem cells?

Stem cells are the bodys building blocks the reserve cells that the body is made up of. These cells are able to produce multiple different cells, each performing a specific function. Stem cells can be divided into two main categories:

What is stem cell therapy?

Stem cell therapy can be categorised as regenerative medicine. Stem cells used in medical treatments are currently harvested from three sources: umbilical cord blood, bone marrow and blood. These are treatments that restore damaged tissue and regenerate new cells in the case of illness or injury.

While there are other forms of stem cell therapy, these are still in the early stages and regarded as research.

How is stem cell therapy performed?

Adult stem cells are derived from a blood sample and injected back into the patient's blood. The surrounding cells are then activated, stimulating rejuvenation in the area.

Why the controversy?

In 2004 South Africa became the first African nation to open a stem cell bank. This involved embryonic stem cells for cloning research and not the "adult" stem cells used in treatment.

Embryonic stem cells are often viewed as problematic, as they are derived from very young foetuses. It is thus viewed as a form of "abortion" to use embryonic stem cells for treatment. But in most cases of stem cell therapy adult stem cells are used, which causes few ethical problems. Stem cells derived from the umbilical cord are not the same as from the embryo.

What does science say?

Prof Jacqui Greenberg from the University of Cape Town stated that although stem cells can potentially treat various diseases, they should be treated with extreme care.

She has no doubt that in time (in medical science particularly, progress is slow and measured in blocks of 10 years), stem cells will be the solution for many things. "But right now we have to strike a balance of not creating too much hype and raising hope too soon. Stem cells are the future, but the future is not now," Greenberg states.

The reason for this is that stem cells derived from an adult are too volatile at times. Researchers are not clear on how many of these stem cells will actually "survive" and "activate" to treat the condition at hand. Therefore it can't be predicted how many cells will survive and become functional.

There is as yet little proof that stem cells can actually fight disease when injected back into the host.Despite the success of IPS cell technology up to date, there are stillchallenges with regard to the purity of stem cells before their use in therapy.

Availability and cost in South Africa

Stem cell therapy is available at various treatment centres in South Africa. One of the most prominent is the South African Stem Cell Institute in the Free State. Here, various treatments, such as regenerative skin treatments and prolotherapy (regeneration of the joints), are offered.

Therapy starts with an initial consultation. During the second consultation vitals are checked, followed by either the fat harvest procedure under tumescent anaesthesia or bone marrow aspiration under local anaesthesia.

The stem cells are then cryopreserved and injected into the patient as needed. Prices of the treatment vary from R500 (for a once-off treatment in a small area, such as the hand) to R22 500 (a comprehensive process), depending on the condition being treated and length of treatment needed. This excludes the initial consultation fee and after-care.

There are also stem cell banks in South Africa, such as Cryo-Save, where stem cells can be stored at an annual fee (excluding initial consultation, testing and harvesting) and used for treatment.

Do your own research

If you do want to go the stem cell route, make sure that the medical programme being offered is legitimate and that the projected outcome is based on real evidence.

There are a number of private institutions banking on the promise of curing any number of diseases with stem cells from a patient's own blood. The truth, however, is that there is no conclusive proof that the majority of these diseases can be cured with the person's own stem cells annihilating the claim that stem cell therapy is the solution to all diseases.

Excerpt from:
Is stem cell injection the cure-all miracle? - Health24

Johns Hopkins researchers, working with an international consortium, say they have generated stem cells from skin cells from a person with a severe, early-onset form of Huntingtons disease (HD), and turned them into neurons that degenerate just like those affected by the fatal inherited disorder.

By creating HD in a dish, the researchers say they have taken a major step forward in efforts to better understand what disables and kills the cells in people with HD, and to test the effects of potential drug therapies on cells that are otherwise locked deep in the brain.

Although the autosomal dominant gene mutation responsible for HD was identified in 1993, there is no cure. No treatments are available even to slow its progression.

The research, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, is the work of a Huntingtons Disease iPSC Consortium, including scientists from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and the University of California, Irvine, as well as six other groups. The consortium studied several other HD cell lines and control cell lines in order to make sure results were consistent and reproducible in different labs.

The general midlife onset and progressive brain damage of HD are especially cruel, slowly causing jerky, twitch-like movements, lack of muscle control, psychiatric disorders and dementia, and eventually death. In some cases (as in the patient who donated the material for the cells made at Johns Hopkins), the disease can strike earlier, even in childhood.

Having these cells will allow us to screen for therapeutics in a way we havent been able to before in Huntingtons disease, says Christopher A. Ross, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, neurology, pharmacology and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and one of the studys lead researchers. For the first time, we will be able to study how drugs work on human HD neurons and hopefully take those findings directly to the clinic.

Ross and his team, as well as other collaborators at Johns Hopkins and Emory University, are already testing small molecules for the ability to block HD iPSC degeneration. These small molecules have the potential to be developed into novel drugs for HD.

The ability to generate from stem cells the same neurons found in Huntingtons disease may also have implications for similar research in other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons.

To conduct their experiment, Ross took a skin biopsy from a patient with very early onset HD. When seen by Ross at the HD Center at Hopkins, the patient was just seven years old. She had a very severe form of the disease, which rarely appears in childhood, and of the mutation that causes it. Using cells from a patient with a more rapidly progressing form of the disease gave Ross team the best tools with which to replicate HD in a way that is applicable to patients with all forms of HD.

Her skin cells were grown in culture and then reprogrammed by the lab of Hongjun Song, Ph.D., a professor at Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering, into induced pluripotent stem cells. A second cell line was generated in an identical fashion in Dr. Rosss lab from someone without HD. Simultaneously, other HD and control iPS cell lines were generated as part of the NINDS funded HD iPS cell consortium.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins and other consortium labs converted those cells into generic neurons and then into medium spiny neurons, a process that took three months. What they found was that the medium spiny neurons deriving from HD cells behaved just as they expected medium spiny neurons from an HD patient would. They showed rapid degeneration when cultured in the lab using basic culture medium without extensive supporting nutrients. By contrast, control cell lines did not show neuronal degeneration.

These HD cells acted just as we were hoping, says Ross, director of the Baltimore Huntington's Disease Center. A lot of people said, Youll never be able to get a model in a dish of a human neurodegenerative disease like this. Now, we have them where we can really study and manipulate them, and try to cure them of this horrible disease. The fact that we are able to do this at all still amazes us.

Specifically, the damage caused by HD is due to a mutation in the huntingtin gene (HTT), which leads to the production of an abnormal and toxic version of the huntingtin protein. Although all of the cells in a person with HD contain the mutation, HD mainly targets the medium spiny neurons in the striatum, part of the brains basal ganglia that coordinates movement, thought and emotion. The ability to work directly with human medium spiny neurons is the best way, researchers believe, to determine why these specific cells are susceptible to cell stress and degeneration and, in turn, to help find a way to halt progression of HD.

Much HD research is conducted in mice. And while mouse models have been helpful in understanding some aspects of the disease, researchers say nothing compares with being able to study actual human neurons affected by HD.

For years, scientists have been excited about the prospect of making breakthroughs in curing disease through the use of stem cells, which have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types. In the form of embryonic stem cells, they do so naturally during gestation and early life. In recent years, researchers have been able to produce induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are adult cells (like the skin cells used in Rosss experiments) that have been genetically reprogrammed back to the most primitive state. In this state, under the right circumstances, they can then develop into most or all of the 200 cell types in the human body.

The other members of the research consortium include the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the University of California, San Francisco, Cardiff University the Universita degli Studi diMilano and the CHDI Foundation.

Primary support for this research came from an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant (RC2-NS069422) from the National Institutes of Healths National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and a grant from the CHDI Foundation, Inc.

Other Johns Hopkins researchers involved in this study include Sergey Akimov, Ph.D.; Nicolas Arbez, Ph.D.; Tarja Juopperi, D.V.M., Ph.D.; Tamara Ratovitski; Jason H. Chiang; Woon Roung Kim; Eka Chighladze, M.S., M.B.A.; Chun Zhong; Georgia Makri; Robert N. Cole; Russell L. Margolis, M.D.; and Guoli Ming, M.D., Ph.D.

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Turning Skin Cells Into Brain Cells - 06/28/2012

"By using our novel nanochip technology, injured or compromised organs can be replaced, said Dr Sen.

We have shown that skin is a fertile land where we can grow the elements of any organ that is declining.

TNT extends the concept known as gene therapy, which has been known about for some time, however the big difference is how the DNA is delivered into the body.

"The concept is very simple," said Professor James Lee, who co-led the research.

"As a matter of fact, we were even surprised how it worked so well.

In my lab, we have ongoing research trying to understand the mechanism and do even better.

So, this is the beginning, more to come."

"By using our novel nanochip technology, injured or compromised organs can be replaced. We have shown that skin is a fertile land where we can grow the elements of any organ that is declining, said Dr Sen.

The study is published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

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Penny-sized nanochip pad to regrow organs and heal injuries - Telegraph.co.uk

If you look at your skin, most of what you will see is actually dead cells. This thin outermost sheet protects the living cells underneath as they develop.

Thats why people exfoliatebecause your skin cells are designed to mature and slough off, says Thierry Work, a wildlife disease specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey. In June, he and his colleagues reported that they successfully mimicked this process with sea turtle skin. No, they didn't give sea turtles a facial, but they did grow layers of turtle skin in the lab.

Work is studying the virus responsible for a deadly disease called fibropapillomatosis, which causes tumors to grow all over sea turtles skin and inside their bodies. In order to grow this virus we have to basically replicate skin in the lab, because this virus will only grow when skin cells are maturing, he says. Cultivating the elusive virus may help researchers save sea turtles and perhaps shed light on how herpes viruses replicate in people.

Works efforts represent the first time that scientists have engineered reptile skin, but weve been building our own lab-grown versions of mammalian skin for decades. Lab-made skin can help us find treatments for diseases, heal wounds, spare animals from cosmetics testing, and design leather that emulates the look and feel of real animal hides. Heres how were imitating skin to benefit humans and other creatures.

Turtle trouble

Fibropapillomatosis most often strikes endangered green turtles, although it sometimes shows up in other species of sea turtles. The illness can debilitate turtles by growing tumors that prevent the animals from seeing properly or eating, and by suppressing the immune system.

To combat this disease, scientists must examine how the virus (Chelonid herpesvirus 5, or ChHV5 for short) multiplies in living cells. So Work and his team collected skin samples from green turtles with fibropapillomatosis that had just died or had to be euthanized. They then made a gel from collagenthe same protein that gives skin its firmnessand seeded it with cells taken from deep within the donated skin. Its this layer that we see when we examine a leather handbag or pair of shoes, Work says. Finally, his team grew surface skin cells on top of this scaffold.

The fruits of their labors are little plugs of skin only about 5 to 6 millimeters wide. But under the microscope, they look just like actual turtle skin, Work says.

Chelonid herpesvirus 5 and some other viruses (such as the one that causes warts in people) cant be grown in a lab without an environment that mimics the shape of skin and is populated by live, maturing cells.

Other viruses are less demanding, including herpes simplex (cause of cold sores and genital herpes in humans). Normally, herpes simplex and other viruses are grown on a flat lawn of skin cells in a petri dish. But this setting doesnt really recreate the shape and structure of real skin. So there may be insights were missing by cultivating viruses in a dish. We really havent seen what the virus does in the actual three-dimensional structure of reconstructed skin, Work says.

When he and his colleagues grew ChHV5 in their turtle skin, the pathogen did not behave as expected. The viruses formed odd looking, sun-shaped structures to serve as factories in the cells where the virus settled in and made copies of itself. The way all these components were being put togetherwas quite different than what people saw with conventional herpes viruses, Work says.

It could be that herpes simplex, and other herpes viruses that infect people, also form similar structures to assemble fresh recruits. The replication of the herpes virus is actually a lot more complicated than what people thought, Work speculates. The more we know about how viruses actually interact with cells, the more effective drugs we can design.

Now that scientists can cultivate ChHV5 in the lab, the next step is to come up with a blood test for fibropapillomatosis. That would tip them off that the disease is on the loose in a particular area before turtles begin to die. Theyre in a world of hurt, and by the time theyre heavily tumored its really too late to do anything, Work says.

It wont be practical to vaccinate or treat all the turtles directly. But we may be able to discourage the diseases transmission, the same way we use insecticides and bed nets to thwart mosquitoes from passing on malaria.

And now that reptile skin has been successfully grown in the lab, the technique could be put to work investigating other reptile and amphibian skin diseases. Engineered hide might help us learn more about snake fungal disease, which threatens snakes in the eastern and Midwestern United States, or the chytrid fungus that has infected frogs around the globe.

Healing wounds

Turtle skin doesnt have hair follicles or sweat glands, Work says. So its a bit easier to engineer than human skin. Nevertheless, the technique he used to emulate sea turtle pelts was adapted from ones commonly used to grow our own version of human skin.

Skin substitutes are an alternative to using grafts transplanted from elsewhere on a patients body to cover burns or other chronic wounds. Theres going to be a limited number of times that patients will allow the grafts to be taken from their thighs. These products that are ready-made became very popular because of that, says Vincent Falanga, an emeritus professor in the Boston University School of Medicines department of dermatology, whose studies on living bioengineered skin led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approving it to help non-healing wounds close more quickly.

Unlike skin grafts, bioengineered skin does not stick around, and eventually disintegrates. It does, however, protect the wound and stimulate the skins natural healing processes. Using bioengineered skin is a less painful process than undergoing skin grafts and may cause fewer complications, although its also more costly in general.

Bioengineered skin is often grown using cells taken from newborns foreskins. However, the vigorous young cells may stimulate the damaged area so much that it requires more energy than it can supply, Falanga says. Bioengineered skin that relies on less-active adult cells might actually be more effective in helping wounds to heal.

Skin substitutes dont quite function like the real thing. Last year, though, researchers in Japan reported that theyd grown realistic mouse skin from stem cells and successfully transplanted it onto other rodents. Previously when scientists grew skin from stem cells, they only managed to make sheets of cells emulating the skins outermost layer. But the new skin recreated all three of the layers found in skin, as well as boasting hair follicles and sebaceous glands (which make a fatty secretion to lubricate the skin).

Falanga is skeptical that this kind of engineered skin will perform well in chronic wounds. People in the bioengineering field, they want to reproduce whats already in nature, he says. We want to have a product that looks exactly like skin. Yet lingering wounds lack proper blood supply or have other problems that prevent them from healing. So they may be unable to maintain normally functioning skin, with its high energy demands.

However, the team in Japan hopes their lab-grown skin will eventually help people with burns, scars, or skin diseases like alopecia. "Up until now, artificial skin development has been hampered by the fact that the skin lackedimportant organs, such as hair follicles and exocrine glands, coauthor Takashi Tsuji, of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, said in a press release. With this new technique, we have successfully grown skin that replicates the function of normal tissue.

The realistic skin also brings scientists closer to their dream of growing whole organs that can be transplanted into people, Tsuji said.

Sparing animals

But medical treatments aren't the only uses for skin substitutes. Tsuji and his team also have another goal in mind for their creation: Eventually, the realistic skin could be used for testing out cosmetics in lieu of animals.

There are already several companies devoted to just this purpose. Boston-based MatTek sells their lab-grown skin to other companies that make laundry detergent, makeup, anti-aging creams, and other chemicals.

Like Works sea turtle skin, these nubbins of skin are tinyjust a fraction of a millimeter thick. They are grown from skin cells left over after surgical procedures like tummy tucks and circumcisions. This skin is a better proxy for actual human hide than animals are, one of MatTeks customers told Wired last year.

Lab-made skin will soon provide an alternative to leather, too. Brooklyn-based startup Modern Meadow genetically engineers animal cells to produce collagen, which they use to make leather that resembles actual animal pelts. The biofabricated leather takes two weeks to grow, as opposed to the years it takes to raise an animal, slaughter it, and tan its hide. And because the cell-spun leather lacks features like hair and fat, its more eco-friendly to treat than the real thing.

Could Works lab-grown reptile hide also be used instead of skin from actual snakes or alligators for bags and shoes? Youd need to optimize this technique quite a bit before you got to that scale, he says. But I certainly think its possible.

Also apparently on the table: using DNA from a deceased fashion icon to grow skin for leather jackets and bags. Designer Tina Gorjanc wants to create artificial skin using Alexander McQueens genetic material, harvested from hair he used in a 1992 collection. Shes filed a patent in the United Kingdom for the process, although for now her prototypes are made from pig leather treated to look like human skin.

Read more from the original source:
Growing skin in a lab has benefits for humans and turtles alike - Popular Science

Credit: University of California, San Francisco

A virus hiding quietly in the gut may trigger the onset of a severe complication known as graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in patients who receive bone marrow transplants, according to a new study led by scientists at UC San Francisco and Saint-Louis Hospital in Paris, France.

GvHD affects up to 60 percent of patients who undergo bone marrow stem-cell transplants, and kills about half of those affected. After transplants, to prevent a recipient's immune cells from laying siege to unfamiliar donor cells and rejecting them, clinicians often use drugs to suppress the immune response. GvHD is a mirror image of organ rejection, in which immune cells in the transplant attack its new host, the patient.

Despite the pervasiveness of this disease, there isn't yet a clear way of foretelling patients' risk of developing it before they go into surgery. The new study, published online July 31, 2017, in Nature Medicine, unveils a viral biomarker that could allow clinicians to assess patients' risk of an acute form of the disease known as enteric GvHD, which affects the gastrointenstinal system.

The team used a technique known as metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) which can rapidly and concurrently sequence genetic material of all organisms present in any biological sample to catalog microbes in patients' digestive tracts, monitoring the evolving bacterial and viral population throughout the transplantation process.

Although mNGS analyses of bacterial populations, called microbiomes, have been much in the news, fewer studies have focused on "viromes," the term for viral populations.

"Viromes can play an important part in health and disease," said Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, an associate professor of laboratory medicine at UCSF and principal investigator of the study. "Our goal was to understand what impact transplantation has on the gut virome."

In the new work, the researchers scanned stool samples taken from 44 patients before they received a transplant and up to six weeks after, and sequenced all the DNA and RNA in the samples in order to assemble a roster of their microbial passengers.

Using this technique, the researchers identified a number of viruses that flared up in the guts of patients who developed the deadly condition. Of particular note were members of the picobirnavirus (PBV) family: the presence of these viruses before transplantation, even in very small populations, was a reliable sign that a patient would likely develop the disease after a transplant.

"I would've expected herpesviruses or adenoviruses to be the more likely cause of infection," said Chiu. "We wouldn't have picked up picobirnaviruses were it not for the metagenomics approach."

PBVs are a very diverse family of viruses more diverse than HIV, said Jrme Le Goff, PhD, associate professor at the University of Paris Diderot and lead author of the new study. "It's very difficult to design a single test to detect all viruses simultaneously," said Le Goff. "So for many years, labs did not have the means to look for PBV." Indeed, each of the 18 patients who tested positive for PBV was carrying a different strain, a diversity that makes it challenging to detect PBVs using a simple lab test.

The team also observed a previously unreported "bloom" of other resident viruses in patients that occurred three to five weeks after they had received transplants. Intriguingly, the onset of GvHD appeared to trigger the late awakening of these covert viruses, laying to rest a longstanding chicken-and-egg debate: which comes first, viral infection or GvHD? The researchers conclude that much of the viral flare they saw is due to reactivation of latent gut infections following transplantation.

Given the potential utility of PBV as a predictive biomarker, Chiu and his team now hope to develop a metagenomics-based test to screen patients before transplantation. "We also saw shifts in the microbiome but those in the virome were more pronounced," said Chiu. "Loss of bacteria colonizing the gut has been thought to predispose patients to GvHD; here we show that shifts in the virome may also play a role in the occurrence of this disease."

Although the new study strongly implicates PBVs in the onset of GvHD, it is too early to tell whether or how these viruses trigger the disease. The team is now enrolling more adult and pediatric patients both in Paris and at UCSF to expand their analyses and uncover the mechanism by which the virus modulates the risk of disease. A systematic understanding of the virus's role could ultimately inform whether using antiviral drugs or tweaking the body's immune response would be the best strategy to temper the disease.

"It would be great to have a tool that can be used to assess GvHD risk in these patients before they undergo a transplant," Chiu said, a step that Le Goff said could lead to new therapies. "We hope that in the next few years we will find a way to prevent virus-associated GvHD," said Le Goff.

Explore further: Researchers develop new strategy to limit side effects of stem cell transplants

More information: Jrme Legoff et al. The eukaryotic gut virome in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: new clues in enteric graft-versus-host disease, Nature Medicine (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nm.4380

Go here to read the rest:
Gut viruses tied to potentially deadly complication of bone marrow transplant - Medical Xpress

BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics of Petah Tikva is recruiting American patients for a Phase 3 clinical study of its NurOwn stem-cell treatment intended to halt progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

The announcement was made in a patient webinar last week.

The NurOwn platform grew out of a technique developed at Tel Aviv University for growing and enhancing stem cells harvested from patients own bone marrow. The enhanced cells, injected via lumbar puncture, secrete elevated levels of nerve-growth factors believed to protect existing motor neurons, promote motor neuron growth and reestablish nerve-muscle interaction.

A 24-week Phase 2 safety study was concluded in 2016 on 48 participants (36 treated, 12 placebo) with possible, probable and definite ALS. This study was done at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Mayo Clinic.

The Phase 3 double-blind, placebo-controlled study, to begin enrollment in August, will look at efficacy and safety of repeated doses. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has awarded Brainstorm a $16 million grant to support the pivotal trial.

This study will accept 200 randomized study participants between the ages of 18 and 60 (half getting the treatment and half a placebo) at the three previous centers as well as California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, UC-Irvine near Los Angeles and another site not announced.

Potential participants must live within about 100 miles of one of the centers for ease of follow-up. They will receive three doses over a 16-week treatment phase and then undergo 28 weeks of follow-up.

BrainStorm President and CEO Chaim Lebovits said he hopes to get approval by the end of the year for a hospital exemption program in Israel an accelerated regulatory pathway that would clear the way for a first batch of 50 patients to receive NurOwn at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. However, there will be no compassionate treatment using NurOwn in Israel or elsewhere.

The NurOwn platform technology also has potential applications in any neurodegenerative disease, such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinsons.

For more information, click here.

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ALS treatment to begin Phase 3 clinical trials in US - ISRAEL21c

Over the past twenty years, Jamie Sherrill has become one of the most in-demand skincare gurus in Hollywood. But you may not know her name--she goes by the moniker Nurse Jamie, which is also the name of her line of cult-favorite beauty tools and potions, as well as her Los Angeles spa, Nurse Jamie Beauty Park. Before you ask--yes, Sherrill is, in fact, a nurse, but she's also a certified aesthetician, which means she can offer her devoted clients, who range from Jessica Alba to Ruby Rose, a wide-range of services that promise flawless skincare through some very unique methods that can be done both at home and in the office. "At Nurse Jamie Beauty Park, our vision is simple to offer not only the best non-surgical beauty solutions available on the market, but also a customized combination of the most cutting-edge technical advances in anti-aging, skincare and beauty today," Sherrill explains. "High-tech tools, devices and home-based care are a big part of my regiment and I make everyone participate."

Here, Sherrill offers insight into the most in-demand celebrity beauty desires, and offers tips on improving your complexion at home.

You have a wide range of high profile clients, all unique with their own concerns and skincare regimens. What are the most common concerns you hear?Celebrities come in all shapes, sizes and ages, so everyone is going to have a different treatment plan. This year body sculpting is big from banning the bra strap fat to firming the tush, while laser hair removal, Botox, fillers and glowing skin are year round trends. Those requests never go out of style.

What types of treatments are most requested before a red carpet appearance?Some are genetically blessed and don't really do more than an oxygen facial and an electric facial"to be fully red carpet ready. But that said--we start to lose collagen production and skin elasticity starting at 25, so we will typically use a range of key technologies in lasers for skin texture and complexion.TheACELLeratorat home beauty tool is idealto help serums and product be absorbed for a lifting and tightening effect, and has a great anti-inflammatory property. You can use every day but specifically just before an event for a more open eye look or more defined cheek even if you just flew in!This works well for the face and body, so it helps with stretch marks and skin smoothing for waistline, hips and thighs. Trust me this is acelebsecret. If you don't believe me, do one side of your face for just one minute then look into a mirror.

But don't forget red carpet prep needs to happen every day, too. Eat well, sleep well on the right pillow, take off make-up at night and use good quality products with the best raw ingredients. Home care matters as much as in office does.

When your clients are on location for months at a time, what tips do you give them?Think maintain, not reclaim and always try to be preventative.Think of the rules of eating that are good for your body; most apply to your skin as well. It is the largest organ of the body so treat it like one.Be consistent with taking off makeup nightly and never with a washcloth. Use a hypoallergenic and antibacterial surface to cleanse your skin. Exfoliate regularly, manually or with a tool, but gently and consistently.

Invest in a beautytool to help increase absorption of products like my Instant Uplift or ACELLerator Ultra. Just like the machines we have in office, they increase absorption and efficacy of your products while helping to improve and maintain tone. Also, wear sunscreen.It seems basic, but all helps. At-home devices are the future of beauty -- you can have the best raw ingredients in the world, but as skin is the largest organ of the body its main function is to protect. The number one cause of aging is UV damage, the number two is smoking, and the third is sleeping on a traditional pillow.Use satin only and a shape that will help you train to sleep on your back, so that the most delicate areas around the eyes, cheeks and neck do not form permanent wrinkles.

It's the middle of summer. Other than sunscreen and hats, what other advice do you have for fending off skin discoloration?Use good quality products with the best raw ingredients. Old school skincare was to use aggressive products that caused chemical cell turnover reaction, which can make you more susceptible to sun damage. (Retin-A is so 1980s!) My opinion is to use retinol ingredients sparingly. Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) - causes cell turnover and has significant effects on delaying the aging process - including preserving skins cells and skins overall vitality and radiance, without leaving you red, flaky, and shiny. I hate the shiny face -it kills meovertime I see I can spot theglare from across the room.The Nurse Jamie tools that you incorporate into your treatments seem to have a loyal following of their own. Like the Beauty Stamp, for example. How does that work?The Beauty Stamp may very well be the best investment anyone can make. A small pad features a cross section of micro needles in a grid that helps with micro exfoliation, opens channels for product delivery and efficacy and aids in the body process of collagen andelastinproduction. It is my triple threat. For day of events you need to focus on complexion and texture in a non-invasive way or only protocols with no downtime and no risk. Don't try something new with a high risk to low reward for the day of an event. Nothing worse than redness or inflammation when you are dressed to impress and need your face to match! How about the Accelerator Ultra?TheACELLeratorat home beauty tool is ideal for a daily regimentto help serums and product be absorb lifting and tightening effect and has a great anti-inflammatory property.You can use every day but specifically just before an event for a more open eye look or more defined cheek--even if you just flew in! This works well for face and body so it helps with stretch marks and skin smoothing for waistline, hips and thighs, too. Trust me, this is acelebsecret dont believe me? Do one side of your face for just one minute then look into a mirror.What is your top selling tool?UpLift Massaging Beauty Roller. It has a huge celebrity following.Are there any foods or vitamins that you recommend for vibrant skin?A B12 Energy Shot. Close to a decade ago I injected Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie with it right in their bums on national television forThe Simple Life,and in turn injectable vitamins became one of our most popular treatments...

What are the biggest skincare mistakes people make?Side sleeping and over exfoliating. We need to treat our skin like a silk fabric not a piece of leather. When youoverexfoliate(physically and chemically) and withtoo much frequency it destroys the protective barrier that your skin has - once it is removed or compromised you are you exposing your skin to environmental toxins, sun damage pre-mature aging, acne, etc. It's very common.

What is your personal daily skin routine?Taking off my make-up--I can't go to bed with my make-up on. Period. The UpLift Facial Massaging Beauty Roller, EGF Stem Cell Complex--I dont go anywhere without this cream. I would bathe in it if I could--and I use my ACELLerator for 10 minutes each night on both sides of my face while I sit in bed.I practice what I preach.That way I can give them my best face - and tell them it is what I do and mean it! Ive dedicated my life to skin and created my line for products that I felt that were missing in the marketplace. As a busy working mom of three toddlers Im proud to say that Im my own client.

Related: Are You Obsessed with Crystals, Too? How Crystals Went From New Age Curiosity to Mainstream Sensation

10 Celebrities Who've Quit Botox and Fillers Throughout the Years

Watch: History of the Best of Celebrity Fashion in the Hamptons

See the rest here:
Celebrity Skincare Guru Nurse Jamie on Why At-Home Beauty Tools Are the Future - W Magazine

Advertising forstem cell therapies not supported by clinical researchoftenmadedirectly to patients and sometimes promoted as a cure for diseases like multiple sclerosis or Parkinsons is a growing problem that needs to be addressed and regulated, a team of leading experts say, calling suchstem cell tourism potentially unsafe.

Stem cell tourism is the unflattering name given to the practice of encouragingpatients totravel outside their home country to undergo suchtreatment, typicaly at a private clinic.

The article, titledMarketing of unproven stem cellbased interventions: A call to actionandrecently published inthe journal Science Translational Medicine, was co-authored by scientistswith universities and hospitals in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Belgium, Italy, Japan, and Australia. It focuses on the global problem of thecommercial promotion of stem cell therapies and ongoing resistance to regulatory efforts.

Its authors suggest that a coordinated approach, at national and international levels, be focused on engagement, harmonization, and enforcement in order to reduce risks associated with direct-to-consumer marketing of unproven stem cell treatments.

Treatments involving stem cell transplants are now being offered by hundreds of medical institutions worldwide, claiming efficacy in repairing tissue damaged by degenerative disorders like MS, even thoughthose claim often lack or are supported bylittle evidence .

They alsonoted that the continued availability of these treatments undermines the development of rigorously tested therapies, and potentially canendanger a patients life.

The researchers emphasizethat tighter regulations on stem cell therapy advertising are needed, especiallyregarding potential clinical benefits. They support the establishment ofinternational regulatory standards for the manufacture and testing of human cell and tissue-based therapies.

Many patients feel that potential cures are being held back by red tape and lengthy approval processes. Although this can be frustrating, these procedures are there to protect patients from undergoing needless treatments that could put their lives at risk, Sarah Chan, a University of Edinburgh Chancellors Fellow and report co-author, saidin anews release.

Chan and her colleagues are also calling for the World Health Organization to offer guidance on responsible clinical use of cells and tissues, as it does for medicines and medical devices.

Stem cell therapies hold a lot of promise, Chan said, but we need rigorous clinical trials and regulatory processes to determine whether a proposed treatment is safe, effective and better than existing treatments.

According to the release, the report and its recommendationsfollowed the death of two children at a German clinic in 2010. The clinichas since been shut down.

Certainstem cell therapies mostly involving blood and skin stem cells have undergone rigorous testing in clinical trials, the researchers noted. A number of theseresulted in aprovedtreatments for certain blood cancers, and to grow skin grafts for patients with severe burns.

Information about the current status of stem cell research andpotential uses of stem cell therapiesis availableon the websiteEuroStemCell.

See original here:
Stem Cell Treatments in Use at Clinics Worldwide Need Regulation ... - Multiple Sclerosis News Today

VW independent/submitted information

DELPHOS A Delphos couple were injured in a home invasion assault that occurred Saturday morning.

David and Dianna Allemeier of 209 S. Pierce St. in Delphos were both taken to St. Ritas Medical Center in Lima for treatment of injuries received when a man gained entry to their home and reportedly assaulted them.

Delphos Police were first called out at 6:05 a.m. Saturday on a report of a suspicious person in the 300 block of Jackson Street who was knocking on doors and then walking away. However, while en route to that call, officers were informed that a man had been injured and was bleeding in the 200 block of Pierce Street.

When officers arrived on the scene, they found Allemeier bleeding from an injury to his neck. The Delphos resident said he received the injury from a man who had gained entry into his home.

Officers approached the residence and found the back door unlocked and a lot of blood at the scene. The home was secured and a K-9 and Crime Scene Unit sought from the Allen County Sheriffs Office.

Allemeier then said his wife was still in the house and officers then entered and found Mrs. Allemeier, who was also injured, in the bedroom area of the residence.

After the Allemeiers were transported to the hospital, a K-9 search was made of the area, and the house was processed by an Allen County sheriffs deputy.

No information was released on whether items were taken from the Allemeier house.

Police are currently seeking a young, skinny white male with black hair, possibly wearing cutoff shorts. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Delphos Police Department or Allen County Sheriffs Office.

The investigation is continuing, with no further information forthcoming at this time.

Read more from the original source:
Ventolin proair - Rsv breathing treatments albuterol - Van Wert independent

Getty Images/Spencer Platt

Stem cell science is an area of medical research that continues to offer great promise. But as this weeks paper in Science Translational Medicine highlights, a growing number of clinics around the globe, including in Australia, are exploiting regulatory gaps to sell so-called stem cell treatments without evidence that what they offer is effective or even safe.

Such unregulated direct-to-consumer advertising typically of cells obtained using liposuction-like methods not only places the health of individuals at risk, but could also undermine the legitimate development of stem cell-based therapies.

Many academic societies and professional medical organisations have raised concerns about these futile and often expensive cell therapies. Despite this, national regulators have typically been slow or ineffective in curtailing them.

As well as tighter regulations here, international regulators such as the World Health Organisation and the International Council on Harmonisation need to move on ensuring patients desperate for cures arent sold treatments with limited efficacy and unknown safety.

Hundreds of stem cell clinics post online claims that they have been able to treat patients suffering from a wide range of conditions. These include osteoarthritis, pain, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and infertility. The websites are high on rhetoric of science often using various accreditation, awards and other tokens to imply legitimacy but low on proof that they work.

osteoporosis strong bones workout old lady

Donna McWilliam/APRather than producing independently verified results, these clinics rely on patient testimonials or unsubstantiated claims of improvement. In so doing these shonky clinics understate the risks to patient health associated with these unproven stem cell-based interventions.

Properly administered informed consent is often overlooked or ignored, so patients can be misled about the likelihood of success. In addition to heavy financial burdens imposed on patients and their families, there is often an opportunity cost because the time wasted in receiving futile stem cells diverts patients away from proven medicines.

The many recent reports of adverse outcomes demonstrate the risks of receiving unproven cell therapies are not trivial. In the USA three women were blinded following experimental stem cell treatment for macular degeneration (a degenerative eye disease that can cause blindness). One man was rendered a quadriplegic following a stem cell intervention for stroke. And a woman whose family sought treatment for her dementia died in Australia.

Other notorious cases involving the deaths of patients include the German government shutting down the X-Cell Centre and the Italian government closing the Stamina Foundation it had previously supported.

Read More

REUTERS/Juan Carlos UlateAt present, the only recognised stem cell treatments are those utilising blood stem cells isolated from bone marrow, peripheral blood (the cellular components of blood such as red and white blood cells and platelets) or umbilical cord blood.

Hundreds of thousand of lives have been saved over the last half-century in patients with cancers such as leukaemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma, as well as rare inherited immune and metabolic disorders.

A few types of cancer and autoimmune diseases may also benefit from blood stem cells in the context of chemotherapy. Different stem cells are also successfully used for corneal and skin grafting.

All other applications remain in the preclinical research phase or are just starting to be evaluated in clinical trials.

Often dismissed by for-profit clinics as red tape hampering progress, the rigour of clinical trials allows for the collection of impartial evidence. Such information is usually required before a new drug or medical device is released into the marketplace. Unfortunately, in the case of for-profit stem cell clinics, their marketing has gazumped the scientific evidence.

Action is required on many fronts. Regulators at both an international and national level need to tackle regulatory loopholes and challenge unfounded marketing claims of businesses selling unproven stem cell interventions.

Researchers need to more clearly communicate their findings and the necessary next steps to responsibly take their science from the laboratory to the clinic. And they should acknowledge that this will take time.

Patients and their loved ones must be encouraged to seek advice from a trained reputable health care professional, someone who knows their medical history. They should think twice if someone is offering a treatment outside standards of practice.

The stakes are too high not to have these difficult conversations. If a stem cell treatment sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

NOW WATCH: America's B-2 stealth bomber is unlike any military aircraft in the world

See Also:

Go here to read the rest:
Private clinics are peddling untested stem cell treatments it's unethical and dangerous - Yahoo News UK

Professional medical organisations have raised concerns about these expensive cell therapies

Stem cell science is an area of medical research that continues to offer great promise. But as this weeks paper in Science Translational Medicine highlights, a growing number of clinics around the globe, including in Australia, are exploiting regulatory gaps to sell so-called stem cell treatments without evidence that what they offer is effective or even safe.

Such unregulated direct-to-consumer advertising typically of cells obtained using liposuction-like methods not only places the health of individuals at risk but could also undermine the legitimate development of stem cell-based therapies.

Many academic societies and professional medical organisations have raised concerns about these futile and often expensive cell therapies. Despite this, national regulators have typically been slow or ineffective in curtailing them.

As well as tighter regulations here, international regulators such as the World Health Organisation and the International Council on Harmonisation need to move on ensuring patients desperate for cures arent sold treatments with limited efficacy and unknown safety.

So whats on offer?

Hundreds of stem cell clinics post online claims that they have been able to treat patients suffering from a wide range of conditions. These include osteoarthritis, pain, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and infertility. The websites are high on the rhetoric of science often using various accreditation, awards and other tokens to imply legitimacy but low on proof that they work.

Rather than producing independently verified results, these clinics rely on patient testimonials or unsubstantiated claims of improvement. In so doing these shonky clinics understate the risks to patient health associated with these unproven stem cell-based interventions.

Properly administered informed consent is often overlooked or ignored, so patients can be misled about the likelihood of success. In addition to heavy financial burdens imposed on patients and their families, there is often an opportunity cost because the time wasted in receiving futile stem cells diverts patients away from proven medicines.

The many recent reports of adverse outcomes demonstrate the risks of receiving unproven cell therapies are not trivial. In the USA three women were blinded following experimental stem cell treatment for macular degeneration (a degenerative eye disease that can cause blindness). One man was rendered a quadriplegic following a stem cell intervention for stroke. And a woman whose family sought treatment for her dementia died in Australia.

Other notorious cases involving the deaths of patients include the German government shutting down the X-Cell Centre and the Italian government closing the Stamina Foundation it had previously supported.

Whats approved?

At present, the only recognised stem cell treatments are those utilising blood stem cells isolated from bone marrow, peripheral blood (the cellular components of blood such as red and white blood cells and platelets) or umbilical cord blood.

Hundreds of thousand of lives have been saved over the last half-century in patients with cancers such as leukaemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma, as well as rare inherited immune and metabolic disorders.

A few types of cancer and autoimmune diseases may also benefit from blood stem cells in the context of chemotherapy. Different stem cells are also successfully used for corneal and skin grafting.

All other applications remain in the preclinical research phase or are just starting to be evaluated in clinical trials.

Often dismissed by for-profit clinics as red tape hampering progress, the rigour of clinical trials allows for the collection of impartial evidence. Such information is usually required before a new drug or medical device is released into the marketplace. Unfortunately, in the case of for-profit stem cell clinics, their marketing has gazumped the scientific evidence.

The action is required on many fronts. Regulators at both an international and national level need to tackle regulatory loopholes and challenge unfounded marketing claims of businesses selling unproven stem cell interventions.

Researchers need to more clearly communicate their findings and the necessary next steps to responsibly take their science from the laboratory to the clinic. And they should acknowledge that this will take time.

Patients and their loved ones must be encouraged to seek advice from a trained reputable health care professional, someone who knows their medical history. They should think twice if someone is offering a treatment outside standards of practice.

The stakes are too high not to have these difficult conversations. If a stem cell treatment sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

For more information on recognised stem cell treatments visit the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia and Stem Cells Australia, Choice Australia, EuroStemCell, International Society for Stem Cell Research, and International Society for Cellular Therapy.

Megan Munsie, Deputy Director - Centre for Stem Cell Systems and Head of Education, Ethics, Law & Community Awareness Unit, Stem Cells Australia, University of Melbourne and John Rasko, Clinical Haematologist and President-Elect, International Society for Cellular Therapy., University of Sydney

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Link:
Private clinics' unproven stem cell treatment is unsafe and unethical - Business Standard

TheHorse.com

Take-Homes From the 2017 Equine Ophthalmology Symposium TheHorse.com In her second presentation Schnabel described current progress on ophthalmologic applications of stem cell therapy in horses. She shared recent results of in-vitro (in the lab) studies on bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSC), including their use ...

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Take-Homes From the 2017 Equine Ophthalmology Symposium - TheHorse.com

MIRI: The second child cancer survivor I met, Winnie Foo Hui Yii, is an encouraging story and a living proof to the community how blood stem cell transplantation could help cancer patients.

Foo, born and raised in Kuching, was 17 years old when she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML).

The news was definitely not something Foo and her family would have expected as she was then studying A-Level.

I looked very pale, felt drowsy, nauseous and always felt tired. It persevered for three weeks before my parents suggested a check-up with our family doctor, she said, sharing her experience with The Borneo Post during a visit to Miri recently.

A blood test, she said, showed she had AML and before she could prepare herself for anything that followed, she was already warded in Sarawak General Hospitals haematology ward and in queue for chemotherapy in two weeks time.

Thereafter, she was transferred to Hospital Ampang, one of the 11 haemopoietic transplant centres performing haemopoietic stem cell transplants in Malaysia.

The doctor told me that though my condition was at the edge of turning cancerous, there was still hope for treatment and best, a transplant. I was in a state of shock. So were my parents. They too werent prepared for anything like this.

Honestly, at first my mind kept recalling a book My Sisters Keeper that Id just finished reading right before I was diagnosed. The novel tells the story of a main character, Anna, and her sister who was suffering from leukaemia.

After my diagnosis, I really felt the dying sisters feeling and facing death isnt easy, especially for parents.

While she was on cycles of chemotherapy, her family members were tested for possibility as matching bone marrow donor.

Unfortunately, there was no match and her parents decided to seek another option.

My doctor suggested stem cell transplant, a transplant of blood-forming stem cells to restore the bone marrow. We were given option whether to search in China or Taiwan. We saw hope, however, not without expecting huge expenses, Foo said.

At the time, Taiwan seemed to be the best hope for Foo to find a matching donor, who her doctor had targeted at least 60 per cent of compatibility. A total of seven matching donors were found over the span of three months since search begun, which was splendid news for them.

Being a middle-income family, the expenses for the transplant that cost tens of thousands of ringgit were too much for my parents to bear.

It was said that if the donor happened to be amongst the patients family members, part of the cost would be covered by the government. In Foos case, she had no other choice but to seek a donor internationally.

That was when Sarawak Childrens Cancer Society stepped in to assist Foo and her family, financially and on moral support.

Before the transplant, Foo underwent rounds of chemotherapy that used higher doses of medication and radiation therapy to kill the cancer cells. The final round of chemo right before the transplant was intended to get rid of the bodys immune system, getting the body ready.

The chemotherapy resulted in Foos hair dropping severely to baldness. Initially, she felt the physical changes were interesting, however, not long after, she missed her hair terribly, but tried to put up a brave face.

After the transplant, Foo experienced post-transplant rejection, which according to her doctor is a condition known as immuno-suppression. She was put under doctors observation and prescribed medication such as steroid to stabilise her condition.

My doctor told me that after transplant, my bodys immune system was not quite ready yet. Eventually, it turned out okay for me, she said.

Now, at the age of 21 and on the road to recovery, Foo has restarted her A-Level and is now in her second year.

Looking back at these three years, it taught me a lot about life and to be appreciative. My first day back to school wasnt easy for me because I was the oldest amongst my course-mates. Handling stares is the hardest part but I managed to overcome it.

My parents went through a lot during that period. Apart from enduring the emotional roller-coaster, they made sure that I was well taken care of and not emotionally affected by my own condition. For that, I am so thankful to them.

I guess I managed my emotion well in front of them too, though I would sometimes feel so helpless and weak and at times feeling angry on why things like this happen to me.

But many a times, I told myself that I can do it, because I am still young and have the energy and time to battle against the sickness in me, Foo said.

When she isnt busy with her studies, Foo would spare her time to volunteer with SCCS.

These children with cancer, though some of them may have been in the ward for a long time, they look cheerful.

Being a volunteer, spending time with them, has taught me to be more empathetic, to be content with simple things and that there are many things in life that are more precious. Life is too short to burden yourself with negative thoughts.

This year, Foo has planned to have her head shaved in the coming Kuching leg of Go Bald campaign that will be held on July 9 at CityOne Megamall.

Stem Cell Donor Awareness campaign

President of SCCS, Jocelyn Hee, said the awareness on stem cell donation in the country, particularly Sarawak, is still at a very low level.

This is a new effort taken by SCCS to give hope and save lives of these cancer-stricken children as well as their family, Hee told The Borneo Post.

According to statistics by Malaysian Stem Cell Registry (MSCR), there are 28,500 registered volunteers and only 372 of them are of Sarawak ethnicity.

It is important to know that the diversity of race and intermarriage among Malaysians is one of the contributing factors to the low probability of finding a matching donor for a patient.

Hence, she said, an awareness campaign on stem cell is the initial step theyve taken to call on more donors.

Sarawakians are highly encouraged to pledge as blood stem cell donors, to increase the percentage in finding a compatible donor for patients from Sarawak.

Stem Cell Donor Awareness Drive and Talk will be held at CityOne Megamalls main stage on July 8 from 1.45pm to 2.30pm.

The talk will be sharing information on how stem cell donor-ship helps cancer patients, how one can be eligible to be a donor and the process to become one.

We hope that more people could come and support the good cause, and to spread the word to every member of the society, Hee said.

Link:
Cancer survivor shares how she was saved by stem cell transplant - The Borneo Post

Embryo selection could become a lot cheaper and allow parents to ensure against diseases (Picture: Shutterstock)

People will stop having sex to procreate within three decades, a US professor claims.

Hank Greely, director of Stanford Law Schools Centre for Law and the Biosciences, believes more parents will end up choosing from a range of embryos created in a lab with their DNA.

Mr Greely believes the process will become a lot cheaper and couples will opt for the method to prevent diseases.

The process involves taking a female skin sample to create stem cells, which are then used to create eggs.

These are fertilised with sperm cells, resulting in a selection of embryos.

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Screening would pinpoint any potential diseases and eventually allow parents to determine their childs eye or hair colour.

Mr Greely said: I think one of the hardest things about this will be all the divorces that come about when she wants embryo number 15 and he wants embryo number 64.

I think the decision making will be a real challenge for people.

How do you weigh a slightly higher change of diabetes with slightly lower risk of schizophrenia against better musical ability and a much lower risk of colon cancer? Good luck.

The professor believes the method could cut healthcare costs and reduce diseases.

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Mr Greely defended embryo selection despite the murky ethical grounds.

He said: This is not designer babies or super babies. This is selecting embryos.

You take two people, all you can get out of a baby is what those two people have.

There are already concerns that CRISPR, a tool that scientists use to edit DNA, will be used to create perfect embryos.

However, Mr Greely dismissed this as unlikely and said embryo selection will begin as an infertility treatment before expanding.

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Read more from the original source:
People will 'stop having sex to procreate within 30 years', says scientist - Metro

BAREILLY: Dog owners from across the country, including Delhi and Gujarat, are turning up with their paralytic pets at the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) here for stem cell therapy. Scientists treat a paralyzed dog by transplanting stem cells from healthy dogs. IVRI is the second institute in the country to offer this treatment, after Madras Veterinary College, Chennai.

According to scientists, no research has been conducted to determine the number of dogs who suffer from paralysis every year in India. However, the institute receives at least four cases every week of spinal trauma which causes paralysis in dogs. IVRI recorded 143 cases of posterior paralysis in 2016. These were treated with stem cell therapy and medicines.

"If dogs are treated only with medicines, recovery is witnessed only in a few cases," said Amarpal (who goes by his first name), head and principal scientist, division of surgery, IVRI. On an average, 17% recovery rate was noted among dogs administered only medicines.

However, the best response was recorded among severely affected dogs when they were treated using stem cells, where almost all the patients responded to treatment to variable extent, said the scientist. "Though we have cases where recovery was 100%, the average recovery rate is about 50%. The experiment proved the efficacy of stem cell therapy in cases of paralysis due to spinal trauma," said Amarpal. After seven years of research, stem cell therapy was started at IVRI five years ago for clinical purposes on a nominal registration fee of Rs 30.

Due to its success, pet owners from various parts of the country have started visiting the institute.

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Dog owners flock IVRI for pets' cure | Bareilly News - Times of India - Times of India