Potential Treatment

Gene therapy has been available for quite some time now. Advances in modern medical science, particularly in stem cell research, have made it possible to use DNA to compensate for malfunctioning genes in humans. The therapies haveeven proven effective fortreating rare forms of diseases. Now, a research team in France has shown that gene therapy may be used to cure one of the most common genetic diseases in the world.

The team, led by Marina Cavazzana at the Necker Childrens Hospital in Paris, conducted stem cell treatment on a teenage boy with sickle cell disease. The disease alters theblood through beta-globin mutations, which cause abnormalities in the blood proteinhemoglobin. These abnormalities cause the blood cells (which have an irregular shape, like a sickle, hence their name) to clump together. Patients with sickle cell disease usually need transfusions to clear the blockages their cells cause, and some are able to have bone marrow transplants. About 5 percent of the global population has sickle cell disease,according to the WHO. In the United States alone, the CDC reports that approximately 100,000 people have sickle cell disease.

The patient is now 15 years old and free of all previous medication, Cavazzana saidwhen discussing the outcome of their study. He has been free of pain from blood vessel blockages, and has given up taking opioid painkillers. Their research is published in the the New England Journal of Medicine.

The particular treatment given to the teenage boy at Necker Childrens Hospitalbegan when he was 13 years old. The team took bone marrow stem cells from the boy and added mutated versions of the gene that codes for beta-globin before putting these stem cells back into the boys body. The mutated genes were designed to stop hemoglobin from clumping together and blocking blood vessels the hallmark of sickle cell disease.

Two years later, the boys outcomelooks promising.All the tests we performed on his blood show that hes been cured, but more certainty can only come from long-term follow-up, Cavazzan said. Her team also treated seven other patients who also showed promising progress.

If the method shows success in larger scale clinical trials, it could be a game changer, saidDeborah Gill at the University of Oxford, The fact the team has a patient with real clinical benefit, and biological markers to prove it, is a very big deal.

Other research involving gene therapy is also showing similar promise. One which has already been approved by the FDA is a potential treatment for blindness. Others look at treating Parkinsons disease or evenprolonging human life. What these studies show is that gene therapyand stem cells may be able togive hope to patients with diseases that have long been considered incurable.

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Doctors Claim They've Cured a Boy of a Painful Blood Disorder Using Gene Therapy - Futurism

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Doctors Claim They’ve Cured a Boy of a Painful Blood Disorder Using Gene Therapy – Futurism | March 2nd, 2017

Abby West first decided to become a bone-marrow donor when she was a young journalist covering a bone-marrow drive. Little did she know that nearly two decades later, shed be called upon to try to help save someones life.

The newspaper I had joined had a reporter who had passed away of sickle cell anemia, and I had become aware of the need for African-Americans to join the registry, West, a senior editor at Yahoo Celebrity, tells Yahoo Beauty about her decision to sign up with Be The Match. I was covering a bone-marrow drive for African-Americans, and it seemed like the right thing to do. West says she simply got her cheek swabbed which yields a sample of cells that doctors use to compare specific protein markers with those of patients who need a bone-marrow transplants and then went about her life.

But in June 2014 17 years later she received an email from Be the Match, a registry of the National Marrow Donation Program, saying that her bone marrow was a potential match for someone in need. She called the organization to learn more. You get a sense of urgency, need, and what is expected of you, she says. To make sure she was a healthy donor, West needed to fill out forms, and once it was determined she met all of the donor criteria, she moved on to a physical examination.

(Photo courtesy Abby West)

West says she underwent seven weeks of blood testing and prep work before she donated bone marrow. Part of the process was making a decision about whether she would do a surgical bone-marrow donation, in which a person is put under general or local anesthesia and liquid marrow is taken from the back of the pelvic bone, or a nonsurgical peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) harvest, in which blood is drawn from one arm into a machine, where it is spun and the stem cells are extracted. The remaining blood is then returned to the persons body via the other arm. West chose the latter option, and started receiving Neupogen shots, which increased her bodys production of stem cells. It puts your stem cells on overdrive, she explains.

West says the message from Be the Match was always clear: It was her body and she could change her mind at any point. However, she says, they request that if youre going to change your mind, you do so before you begin the shots. Heres why: At this point, the patient she would be donating to was starting chemotherapy in anticipation of receiving her stem cells. You get the sense that someones life is in the balance and theres no turning back only moving forward, she says. You need to understand the commitment to potentially saving someones life.

West says the shots werent painful, but she did experience some flu-like symptoms. You feel a little achy, she says. Your body is becoming laden with stem cells. Its uncomfortable, but not painful. A nurse came to Wests office to give her the shots, but donors can also go to clinics to get them, or do them on their own. They try to make it as seamless and painless as possible, she says, noting that the shots made her feel moretired than usual. I wasnt on my gym grind that week, she says.

The day of the donation, West reported to a blood donation center at 7 a.m., along with a friend to keep her company, and sat in a chair for about eight hours while her blood was drawn, spun, and returned to her body. When you have to go to the bathroom, you just stop, unhook, go the bathroom, and hook back up again, she says. It wasnt a hardship I cant complain about it. It was eight hours of sitting and talking. West says the process was mildly uncomfortable, but she knew that in about 48 hours, someone was going to have a life-saving operation. Afterwards, she felt tired and went to sleep for a little while. I did it on Friday and was back at work on Monday, but I would have been fine to go to work the next day, she says.

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Stem cells are regenerative, and there is no long-term harm to the donor, Muzzafar Qazilbash, MD professor of stem cell transplantation at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center explains to Yahoo Beauty.

Photo: Courtesy of Abby West

While there is a need for people of all races and ethnicities to donate bone marrow, there a special need for African-Americans to do so, Qazilbash says. African-Americans make up about 10 percent of the U.S. population, and only about 25 percent to 30 percent of people who could potentially benefit from a bone-marrow transplant have a perfectly matched sibling donor available, he says. The rest of the patients have to find matched, unrelated donors from the National Marrow Donor Program. However, the overwhelming majority of approximately 25 million volunteer donors registered with NMDP are people of Western and Northern European origins, and as a result it is very hard to find matching, unrelated matchingdonors for African-American patients, he says. Encouraging more people of African ancestry will increase the possibility of finding unrelated donors for African-American patients, which can be life saving.

Jack Jacoub, MD, medical oncologist and director of thoracic oncology at MemorialCare Cancer Institute at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley, Calif., tells Yahoo Beauty while some ethnicities have very little genetic variability, there is a lot of genetic variability in the African-American population making the probability of having two genetically similar people less likely. Then you bring up the issue of how few African-American donors there are, and there is difficulty finding an adequate donor, he says.

Donor stem cellscan be used to treat life-threatening conditions such as leukemia and lymphoma, as well as sickle-cell anemia, Jacoub says. They can also help people with bone-marrow failure syndromes such as aplastic anemia a condition in which a persons body stops producing blood cells as well as help treat children born with severe immune system deficiencies, Qazilbash says.

West never received information about the person she donated bone marrow to, other than the fact that the patient was a man. She doesnt know how he fared after the donation, but learned that he struggled with graft-versus-host disease, a complication that can occur after a stem-cell or bone-marrow transplant. Its fairly common for people to have it and move forward, but Ive never found out how he ultimately ended up, she says.

West was so moved by her experience that she eventually joined the board of Be the Match, and now urges others tobecome bone-marrow donors. You always think about what you would want someone to do for you or your family member, she says, noting that shes still on the registry and would donate again if there was a need.

Of course, blood and needles are involved, which can scare some people off, but West says its worth it in the end. In order to do something heroic, you have to overcome some discomfort and some trepidations, she said.

To find out more about becoming a bone-marrow donor, please visit BeTheMatch.org.

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Exactly What It's Like to Donate Bone Marrow and Why More African-American Donors Are Needed, Stat - Yahoo Health

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Exactly What It’s Like to Donate Bone Marrow and Why More African-American Donors Are Needed, Stat – Yahoo Health | March 1st, 2017

Johns Hopkins Medicine doctors have treated the first person in a key phase of a clinical trial where a high dose of the patient's own bone marrow cells was used to treat heart failure after a heart attack.

The dose was directed precisely at the point of dysfunction in the heart in the hope that it will stimulate the body's natural healing process.

The Hopkins patient was the first to receive what is called the CardiAMP therapy as part of the third phase of a trial taking place at 40 medical centers across the country. Once phase three trials show a treatment works well, doctors can apply for approval with the Food and Drug Administration.

BioCardia, Inc., headquartered in San Carlos, CA., developed the therapy and The Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund provided research money. The fund was created by the Maryland General Assembly in 2006 to promote state-funded stem cell research and cures through grants and loans to public and private entities.

"Funding the clinical trial of this cell therapy, which could be the first cardiac cell therapy approved in the United States, is an important step towards treatments," Dan Gincel, executive director of the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund, said in a statement. "Through our clinical program, we are advancing cures and improving health care in the State of Maryland."

Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States. About 610,000 people die from heart disease every year and it accounts for one in every four deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The first patient was treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital by a team led by Peter Johnston, faculty member in the Department of Medicine and Division of Cardiology, and principal investigator of the trial at Johns Hopkins.

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Patient's own bone marrow used to treat heart failure - Baltimore Sun (blog)

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Patient’s own bone marrow used to treat heart failure – Baltimore Sun (blog) | March 1st, 2017

With MLB spring training underway, there's plenty to talk about. USA TODAY Sports

Garrett Richards is aiming to pitch through a ligament tear via stem cell therapy and other recovery methods.(Photo: Rick Scuteri, USA TODAY Sports)

TEMPE, Ariz. Garrett Richards first thought when he found out about his torn elbow ligament last May was to schedule Tommy John surgery as soon as possible.

It made sense, considering the ligament-replacement procedure has become the standard fix for such injuries. Plus, the Los Angeles Angels ace was familiar with the operating room, having undergone surgery for a ruptured patellar tendon he sustained on Aug. 20, 2014, toward the end of a breakout season.

Richards knew how to handle the seemingly interminable months of rehab, and he wanted to get the clock started on his return.

But a conversation with Angels head physical therapist Bernard Li convinced Richards to consider other alternatives, and in mid-May he tried a relatively novel treatment in which stem cells taken from bone marrow in his pelvis were injected into the damaged area.

Richards did not pitch again the rest of the year except for a stint in the instructional league, but he has been back on the mound throwing bullpen sessions since the first day of the Angels camp and reported no problems.

This weekend, Richards anticipates pitching in a game for the first time since May 1, when his aching elbow forced him from a start after just four innings.

Its nice to know Ill be able to start the season this year and kind of pick up where I left off, Richards said.

A couple of lockers away, fellow starter Andrew Heaney had a different tale to tell.

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The promising left-hander also went down with a torn ulnar collateral ligament early in the season, after making only one start. Their ailments were the two biggest blows to an Angels rotation that was decimated by injuries, dooming the club to a 74-88 record and a fourth-place finish in the AL West.

Heaney also tried stem cell therapy, two weeks before Richards, both under the supervision of team doctor Steve Yoon. Heaneys ligament didnt heal, though, and after experiencing discomfort throwing following his rehab, he had Tommy John surgery July 1. He has been ruled out for the 2017 season.

They tell you its 50-50. It either works or it doesnt, Heaney said of the stem cell procedure. Obviously, me and Garrett are pretty much the proof of that rule.

Even with less-favorable odds than reconstructive surgery, which has an 80% success rate for returning to action and 67% for pitching 10 games or more, stem cell therapy is gaining acceptance as an option for pitchers with partial UCL tears. The recovery time is shorter 3-5 months instead of 12-18 and the treatment less invasive.

There are limitations. Biological approaches based on stem cells or platelet-rich plasma (PRP) wont repair a complete tear of the ligament. The location of the injury and its extent factor into the chances of success. And players whose ligament doesnt recover, then have to undergo surgery, extend their window of time for returning to action.

Even then, the idea of healing without going under the knife is becoming increasingly appealing. New York Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka treated the small tear in his elbow ligament with PRP and rehabilitation in 2014, sitting out 10 weeks but coming back to pitch in late September.

Hes 26-11 with a 3.26 ERA over the last two seasons, raising the profile of PRP a procedure in which the players own blood is used to promote healing of the injury as a non-surgical alternative.

Now Richards looms as the test case for stem cell treatment to fix partial UCL tears, which make up about 60-70% of these injuries. If the hard-throwing right-hander can return to his old form he was a Cy Young Award candidate before his knee injury in August 2014 other pitchers in his situation are bound to at least consider the route he took.

I hope this opens another path for guys, Richards said. Obviously, if you can prevent being cut on and having surgery, thats the No. 1 priority. I hope guys dont just jump right into Tommy John, that they at least explore this option.

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Ageless veteran Bartolo Colon was the first pitcher widely known to have undergone stem cell therapy as he sought to recover from elbow and shoulder ailments in 2010. At the time, the ethics of the procedure were questioned, especially because the doctor who performed it, South Florida-based Joseph Purita, acknowledged using human growth hormone in previous treatments, though not in Colons.

Since then, the use of stem cells has become more mainstream. They are the focus of Yoons practice.

As more and more people start to use it, youre getting a better sense for what it can and cant do, Yoon said. Baseball definitely has opened up to it quite a bit, and as we see some of the successes like with Garrett, were getting a better understanding that theres a lot of potential here with these types of treatment.

Yoon calls stem cell therapy a super PRP because it combines the curative properties of that treatment with more healing agents, and said it can be used on tendon tears, muscle tears and strains and even to address degenerative joint disease.

However, much remains unknown about the benefits of stem cells. Lyle Cain, an orthopedist who has performed both Tommy John surgeries and stem cell treatments at the Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopaedic Center in Birmingham, Ala., said most of the research has been anecdotal, not scientific.

We still dont have a good understanding even four or five years into it exactly what the stem cells do, what their method is, Cain said. The theory is theres probably a chemical reaction where it releases chemicals in the cell that help the healing process. The stem cells arent necessarily put in there with the thought theyre going to become ligament, but theres probably a cellular chemical mechanism that helps the healing response.

And as Heaney discovered, theyre not always effective. His tear was located farther down the arm, which reduced his chances of success with stem cell therapy. Richards was a better candidate because his injury, though deemed high grade, was located within the ligament, like a slit on a rubber band.

But because Heaney was looking at likely missing most or all of 2017 even if he had surgery right away, he decided to try stem cells. The timing of the injury plays a major role in whether pitchers contemplate alternatives to surgery, with the more conservative approach often recommended if it happens early in the season.

Heaney said he doesnt regret taking that route, and would have been upset if he had undergone the ligament-replacement operation right away, only to find out he could have returned to action quicker through another means.

Im glad it worked for him, he said of Richards. It would have been really awful if it hadnt worked for either of us. Then wed both look like idiots.

Their peers are paying attention. In a major league pitching community where about a quarter of its members have undergone Tommy John surgery, interest in the effectiveness of alternative cures is high.

The Los Angeles Dodgers Brandon McCarthy was not a candidate because his ligament tore clear off the bone, but said he had heard positive reports about stem cell treatment, not so much about PRP.

The Pittsburgh Pirates Daniel Hudson, a veteran of two Tommy Johns, is encouraged as well.

Its supposed to help repair the tissue. Before, ligaments just wont repair themselves, Hudson said. It might keep a lot of guys from going under the knife.

Thats Cains hope. He regularly treats UCL tears on high school, college and minor-league players with stem cells or PRP, but realizes theres heightened pressure on major leaguers to return to the field.

If more of them can do it without visiting an operating room, it would represent a major advancement for both the players and the industry.

I think overall the biologic treatment of these injuries will certainly progress and it will be somewhat the wave of the future, Cain said. There will be certain ligaments that are damaged enough that we dont have an answer; they have to reconstruct. But I think overall, if you look 15 years down the road, I suspect well be doing a lot more non-surgical treatment than surgical treatment.

Contributing: Gabe Lacques in Bradenton, Fla.

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All eyes on Garrett Richards, in hopes stem cells stave off Tommy John surgery - USA TODAY

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on All eyes on Garrett Richards, in hopes stem cells stave off Tommy John surgery – USA TODAY | February 28th, 2017

Shreveport, La. - Jasmine Sewell was diagnosed with bone caner in February of 2014. She and her fiance, Marcus Price, had planned their wedding for September of 2017 but moved up the date after Jasmine was given a prognosis in 2016 of less than a year to live.

Jasmine and Marcus were married February 11, 2017 and many of their guests gave a present to Jasmine by registering as bone marrow donors.

Jasmine has stopped responding to treatments and now needs a bone marrow or stem cell transplant to survive.

Be the Match signs people up to be bone marrow and stem cell donors but there is a shortage of minority donors. The match between the donor and recipient is largely based on genetics an ancestry so the likelihood of a non minority donor being able to help Jasmine is very slim.

The sign up is easy, just a cheek swab, and the donation of stem cells is a process similar to giving blood. Infant recipients can need actual bone marrow which is taken from the bone with a needle but the patient is sedated and most people only feel a bit sore after the procedure.

Jasmine is asking anyone not registered to sign up, and act as if it were their loved ones that needed the transplant.

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Vital need for minority bone barrow donors - Story - KTAL

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Vital need for minority bone barrow donors – Story – KTAL | February 28th, 2017

Kolkata: Joy knew no bounds for 42-year-old Nilesh Sinha, when he hugged his saviour, 27-year-old Sajat Jain. Mr Sinhacalls it the warmest and most meaningful hug of his life.

Two years ago, Mr Sinha was suffering fromAplastic Anemia, a rare disease in which the bone marrow and the hematopoietic stem cells that reside there are damaged. Only a stem cell transplant could have saved himfrom his deteriorating condition and Mr Jains were a perfect match.

The peripheral blood stem cell or PBSC transplant took place at Kolkatas Tata Memorial Centre in 2015. Last week, the two came face-to-face for the first time at an event organised by Datri, Indias largestadult unrelated blood stem cell donors registry, which aided the transplant between the two.

Mr Sinha said he was ecstatic to find the opportunity to say thanks to the man he owes his life to. Sajat is my childrens new superhero, he said.Mr Jain toocould not believe that his simple act saved someones life.

Mr Sinha told NDTV that he is sure that once people get to know about Mr Jain, they will also come forward to register themselves as stem cell donors and after them, the next generation will also get motivated.

Mr Jain, who runs a healthcare start-up, said that he became a donor while researching for his company and could save Mr Sinhas life just in time, after a donor backed out. He wants more young people to register so that someone in need can be benefited.

I was actually pretty excited. I know I was able to save someones life and not too many people can say that in their lifetime. When I actually saw his face, I remembered his previous condition and was delighted to see how fit he had become, Mr Jain told NDTV.

Kolkata has seen 300 successful stem cell transplants so far. Director of Tata Memorial Centre, Kolkata, Dr Mammen Chandy told NDTV that there is a need for more donors in India. When a donor asks me what is the risk of a donation, I would say, what is the risk of crossing the street outside my hospital and not being hit by a bus? he said.

In 2009, Datri came to the aid of people suffering from life threatening blood disorders like leukaemia, lymphoma, severe aplastic anemia, sickle cell disease, thalassemia among others. It started with 3,000 people pledging to donate stem cells and today there are 93,000 registered donors with them. With this small number of registered donors, however, the possibility of finding a match for an Indian anywhere in the world is very bleak.

Blood stem cells from a donor can give someone a second chance at life and a patient has 25 per cent chance of finding a match within the family. There are three sources of blood-forming cells used in transplants: bone marrow, peripheral blood stem cell or PBSC and umbilical cord blood collected after a baby is born.

The peripheral blood stem cell donation is a painless, non-surgical, outpatient procedure that involves only a needle in the arm vein, similar to platelet donation. However, if a marrow is requested, then it is a surgical procedure.

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Stem Cells Saved His Life. Two Years Later, He Met The Donor - NDTV

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February 27, 2017 Human mesenchymal stem cells were labeled for two epigenetic marks (green and red), and the images were analyzed to forecast the cell developmental fate. Credit: Joseph J. Kim

Scientists at Rutgers and other universities have created a new way to identify the state and fate of stem cells earlier than previously possible.

Understanding a stem cell's fatethe type of cell it will eventually becomeand how far along it is in the process of development can help scientists better manipulate cells for stem cell therapy.

The beauty of the method is its simplicity and versatility, said Prabhas V. Moghe, distinguished professor of biomedical engineering and chemical and biochemical engineering at Rutgers and senior author of a study published recently in the journal Scientific Reports. "It will usher in the next wave of studies and findings," he added.

Existing approaches to assess the states of stem cells look at the overall population of cells but aren't specific enough to identify individual cells' fates. But when implanting stem cells (during a bone marrow transplant following cancer treatment, for example), knowing that each cell will become the desired cell type is essential. Furthermore, many protein markers used to distinguish cell types don't show up until after the cell has transitioned, which can be too late for some applications.

To identify earlier signals of a stem cell's fate, an interdisciplinary team from multiple universities collaborated to use super-resolution microscopy to analyze epigenetic modifications. Epigenetic modifications change how DNA is wrapped up within the nucleus, allowing different genes to be expressed. Some modifications signal that a stem cell is transitioning into a particular type of cell, such as a blood, bone or fat cell. Using the new method, the team of scientists was able to determine a cell's fate days before other techniques.

"Having the ability to visualize a stem cell's future will take some of the questions out of using stem cells to help regenerate tissue and treat diseases," says Rosemarie Hunziker, program director for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. "It's a relatively simple way to get a jump on determining the right cells to use."

The approach, called EDICTS (Epi-mark Descriptor Imaging of Cell Transitional States), involves labeling epigenetic modifications and then imaging the cells with super resolution to see the precise location of the marks.

"We're able to demarcate and catch changes in these cells that are actually not distinguished by established techniques such as mass spectrometry," Moghe said. He described the method as "fingerprinting the guts of the cell," and the results are quantifiable descriptors of each cell's organization (for example, how particular modifications are distributed throughout the nuclei).

The team demonstrated the method's capabilities by measuring two types of epigenetic modifications in the nuclei of human stem cells cultured in a dish. They added chemicals that coaxed some of the cells to become fat cells and others to become bone, while another set served as control. Within three days, the localization of the modifications varied in cells destined for different fates, two to four days before traditional methods could identify such differences between the cells. The technique had the specificity to look at regional changes within individual cells, while existing techniques can only measure total levels of modifications among the entire population of cells.

"The levels are not significantly different, but how they're organized is different and that seems to correlate with the fact that these cells are actually exhibiting different fates," Moghe said. "It allows us to take out a single cell from a population of dissimilar cells," which can help researchers select particular cells for different stem cell applications.

The method is as easy as labeling, staining and imaging cells - techniques already familiar to many researchers, he said. As the microscopes capable of super resolution imaging become more widely available, scientists can use it to sort and screen different types of cells, understand how a particular drug may disrupt epigenetic signaling, or ensure that stem cells to be implanted won't transform into the wrong cell type.

Explore further: Super-resolution imaging can map critical cell changes several days sooner than current method

More information: Joseph J. Kim et al, Optical High Content Nanoscopy of Epigenetic Marks Decodes Phenotypic Divergence in Stem Cells, Scientific Reports (2017). DOI: 10.1038/srep39406

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Super resolution imaging helps determine a stem cell's future - Phys.Org

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Super resolution imaging helps determine a stem cell’s future – Phys.Org | February 28th, 2017

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

SanBio, Inc., a scientific leader in regenerative medicine for neurological disorders, today announced that a recent publication of its novel stem cell treatment, SB623, for patients following a stroke, has received a prestigious award from the American Heart Association. The scientific article, Clinical Outcomes of Transplanted Modified Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Stroke: A Phase 1/2a Study, was the third prize winner of the 2016 Stroke Progress and Innovation Award.

The Progress and Innovation Awards are offered by Stroke, a leading scientific journal addressing the diagnosis and treatment of cerebrovascular diseases, jointly with the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. Previous award winners have established important standards of care in neurology, including Activase (alteplase) and induced hypothermia treatment.

Dr. Damien Bates, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Research at SanBio, said, This prize from the American Heart Association recognizes the innovation of our stem cell treatment, SB623, and its potential to treat patients suffering from chronic physical impairments following ischemic stroke. The results of this study are encouraging to all those suffering from the long-term effects of stroke as well as the medical community working to advance treatment options.

The clinical trial was a Phase 1/2a, open-label, single-arm, dose escalation study of 18 patients with chronic motor deficits present for at least six months following an ischemic stroke. Patients received precisely targeted injections of SB623 cells directly into the neural tissue surrounding the damaged area of the brain.

Dr. Gary Steinberg, Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Co-Director of the Stanford Stroke Center, served as Principal Investigator for the clinical trial.

Results for subjects who completed the single arm Phase 1/2a study demonstrated statistically significant improvement in motor function, evaluated using the European Stroke Scale, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, the Fugl-Meyer total score and the Fugl-Meyer motor function total score. The data also showed that the treatment was generally safe and well-tolerated by the trial participants.

As lead author of the scientific article, Dr. Steinberg accepted the award at the recent International Stroke Conference in Houston.

About SanBio, Inc. (SanBio)

SanBio is a regenerative medicine company headquartered in Tokyo and Mountain View, California, with cell-based products in various stages of research, development and clinical trials. Its proprietary cell-based product, SB623, is currently in a Phase 2b clinical trial for treatment of chronic motor impairments resulting from stroke, with its joint development partner, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd., in the United States and Canada. SanBio is also implementing a global Phase 2 clinical trial using SB623 in the United States and Japan for the treatment of motor impairment resulting from traumatic brain injury. More information about SanBio is available at http://www.sanbio.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170226005250/en/

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Study of SanBio's Stem Cell Treatment for Stroke Receives Innovation Award from American Heart Association - Yahoo Finance

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(c) 2017, Bloomberg View.

Two years ago, Doreen Flynn of Lewiston, Maine, won her case against the U.S. government, successfully arguing that bone-marrow donors should be able to receive compensation.

Flynn, a mother of three girls who are afflicted with a rare, hereditary blood disease called Fanconis anemia, has a strong interest in bone-marrow transplantation. At the time of the court ruling, her oldest daughter, Jordan, 14, had already received a transplant, and one of the younger twins, Jorja, was expected to need one in a few years.

Locating a marrow donor is often a needle-in-a-haystack affair. The odds that two random individuals will have the same tissue type are less than 1 in 10,000, and the chances are much lower for blacks. Among the precious few potential donors who are matched, nearly half dont follow through with the actual donation. Too often, patients dont survive the time it takes to hunt for another donor.

Allowing compensation for donations could enlarge the pool of potential donors and increase the likelihood that compatible donors will follow through. So the ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was promising news for the 12,000 people with cancer and blood diseases currently looking for a marrow donor. (James F. Childress, an ethicist at the University of Virginia, and I submitted an amicus brief in the case.)

Soon after the verdict, Shaka Mitchell, a lawyer in Nashville, Tennessee, and co-founder of the nonprofit MoreMarrowDonors.org, began collecting funds to underwrite $3,000 donor benefits, which were to be given as scholarships, housing allowances or gifts to charity.

Mitchell also invited a team of economists to evaluate the effects of the ruling on peoples willingness to join a registry and to donate when they are found to be a match. The researchers were to specifically assess whether cash payments would be any more or less persuasive than noncash rewards or charitable donations.

Now comes the bad news. On Oct. 2, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed a new rule that would overturn the Ninth Circuits decision. The government proposes designating a specific form of bone marrow -- circulating bone-marrow stem cells derived from blood -- as a kind of donation that, under the 1984 National Organ Transplant Act, cannot be compensated. If this rule goes into effect (the public comment period ends today), anyone who pays another person for donating these cells would be subject to as much as five years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

The problem with this rule is that donating bone marrow is not like donating an essential organ. Indeed, the Ninth Circuit based its decision on the fact that modern bone-marrow procurement, a process known as apheresis, is more akin to drawing blood. In the early 1980s, when the transplant act was written, the process was more demanding, involving anesthesia and the use of large, hollow needles to extract marrow from a donors hip. But today, more than two-thirds of marrow donations are done via apheresis. Blood is taken from a donors arm, the bone-marrow stem cells are filtered out, and the blood is then returned to the donor through a needle in the other arm.

The Ninth Circuit panel held that these filtered stem cells are merely components of blood -- no different from blood-derived plasma, platelets and clotting factors, for which donor compensation is allowed.

The strongest opposition to compensation comes from the National Marrow Donor Program, the Minneapolis-based nonprofit that maintains the nations largest donor registry. Michael Boo, the programs chief strategy officer, says of reimbursement, Is that what we want people to be motivated by?

The problem with this logic is that altruism has proven insufficient to motivate enough people to give marrow and, as a result, people die.

HHS is presumably under pressure from the National Marrow Donor Program. The department does not otherwise explain its proposed rule except to claim that compensation runs afoul of the transplant acts intent to ban commodification of human stem cells and to curb opportunities for coercion and exploitation, encourage altruistic donation and decrease the likelihood of disease transmission.

But how could such concerns plausibly apply to marrow stem cells and not to blood plasma? The process of collecting plasma is safe: No serious infection has been transmitted in plasma-derived products in nearly two decades, according to the Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association. Strenuous screening and testing in a robust regulatory environment, coupled with voluntary industry standards and sophisticated manufacturing processes, have created what has been called the safest blood product available today.

Outlawing compensation for stem blood cells but not mature blood cells might even violate the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the law, according to Jeff Rowes, a lawyer at the Institute for Justice, which represented Flynn.

HHS should withdraw its proposal. Ideally, Congress should thwart future regulatory mischief by amending the National Organ Transplant Act to stipulate that marrow stem cells are not organs.

Each year, 2,000 to 3,000 Americans in need of marrow transplants die waiting for a match. Altruism is a virtue, but clearly it is not a dependable motive for marrow donation.

---

Satel, a psychiatrist and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is a co-author of Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mary Duenwald at mduenwald@bloomberg.net.

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Keywords: SATEL-OP-ED-MARROWDONORS

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The US is wrong to ban pay for bone-marrow donors - Standard-Examiner

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February 24, 2017

An international team of researchers, funded by Morris Animal Foundation, has shown that adipose (fat) stem cells might be the preferred stem cell type for use in canine therapeutic applications, including orthopedic diseases and injury.

Researchers at the University of Guelph, University of Western Ontario and Aarhus University, Denmark, ran a battery of tests comparing the physiology characteristics of stem cells derived from adipose tissue versus bone marrow. They found that stem cells from both sources had similar functional properties, including tissue generation and immunomodulating capabilities (ability to adjust immune response), but adipose stem cells grow at a faster rate than bone marrow stem cells. Harvesting adipose stem cells also is less invasive than harvesting bone marrow. The study recently was published in PLoS ONE, an online scientific journal.

In the last decade, the use of stem cell therapy in animals and humans has dramatically increased. In dogs, stem cell therapy is used in the treatment of a variety of orthopedic diseases and injuries. Stem cells are harvested from either fat tissue or bone marrow, purified and grown in culture, then placed back in the patient.

Given the ease of harvesting, adipose tissue has become the site of most stem cell collections in canine patients. But questions persisted regarding the differences between these two sources of stem cells, and which is better suited to therapeutic applications.

"Faster proliferation along with the potential for a less invasive method of their procurement makes them (adipose stem cells) the preferred source for canine mesenchymal stem cells," concluded the research team.

Explore further: Stem cell therapy trial at Sanford first of its kind in US for shoulder injuries

More information: Keith A. Russell et al, Characterization and Immunomodulatory Effects of Canine Adipose Tissue- and Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells, PLOS ONE (2016). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0167442

Journal reference: PLoS ONE

Provided by: Morris Animal Foundation

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Study shows adipose stem cells may be the cell of choice for therapeutic applications - Medical Xpress

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As a devoted gran, Sipy Howard looks forward to watching her grandkids grow up.

In two years' time, the 65-year-old hopes to proudly look on as her youngest granddaughter, Sienna, goes off to school .

But devastatingly, she doesn't know if she'll be able to do so - because she urgently needs a bone marrow transplant to survive.

Sipy, a "warm and adoring" gran, was diagnosed with leukaemia on December 15 last year - which also happened to be her birthday.

Although she has been undergoing intense chemotherapy, she is in need of a bone marrow and stem cell transplant to save her life.

Now, her daughters, Emma, 34, Jolene, 32, and Sammy, 26, have launched a desperate online campaign to find a donor for her.

The heart-wrenching campaign, dubbed #SavingSipy , aims to encourage potential donors to sign up to the bone marrow register.

It stresses how simple it is to register as a donor online.

Sipy, married to husband Eli, told Mirror Online she is "moved" by the support she has received from her loved ones - as well as strangers.

"We really need as many people as possible to sign up to the register," said the mum of three, from Kenton, northwest London.

She added: "I want to see my grandchildren growing up and my youngest granddaughter going to school."

Sipy was devastated to be diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, an aggressive blood cancer, on her 65th birthday.

Her daughters were also shocked by the diagnosis.

Emma said: "You can never prepare yourself for hearing that a loved one has cancer.

"You are suddenly filled with fear and a desperation you have never quite experienced.

"I felt like I had been hit by a car when my dad broke the news to me on my mum's birthday.

"Keeping yourself emotionally together each day becomes your only goal."

She added that her mum is currently "struggling through" her second, gruelling round of chemotherapy.

"It's the knowing that she needs us more than ever that keeps us going, keeps us fighting," she said.

"We won't give up on her and our goal of finding a match for her."

Sipy, described as "bubbly, always laughing and generally a bit nuts", is a gran to two-year-old Sienna and four-year-old Sofia.

A member of the Jewish community, she has an "open house policy" and "cares for everyone she meets", according to her family.

Her daughters are hoping that the community - specifically the Sephardi community - could help to save her life.

Sammy said: "One of the hardest things about the situation is knowing there may be someone in the world who is a match for my mum, but because they have not registered to be on the bone marrow register, they can't save her.

"This is why we are desperately trying to reach out to everyone we can and get our message across.

"We urgently need people to register now and unfortunately we don't have much time."

Jolene added: "Awareness is key."

The campaign is being supported by the charity DKMS, which aims to help blood cancer patients find matching donors.

For details of how to register as a donor online, you can visit the #SavingSipy Facebook page here or DKMS's website here .

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Adoring gran who will die without bone marrow transplant desperate to see granddaughter go to school - Mirror.co.uk

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February 24, 2017

Orlando- In a significant advance in improving the safety of donor stem cell transplants, a major clinical trial led by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) has shown that a novel agent can protect against the most common viral infection that patients face after transplantation.

The results represent a breakthrough in a decade-long effort to identify an effective drug for the prevention of CMV infection in transplant patients that doesn't produce side effects that negate the benefit of the drug itself, the study authors said.

The findings, from an international phase 3 clinical trial of the drug letermovir for preventing cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in transplant patients, will be presented at the 2017 Bone Marrow Transplant Tandem Meetings of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT) and the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) in Orlando, Florida, February 22, 2017.

The study, which involved 565 adult patients at 67 research centers in 20 countries, compared letermovir to placebo in preventing an active CMV infection following transplant with donor stem cells. The patients, who were undergoing transplant as treatment for blood-related cancers or other disorders, all carried a CMV infection from earlier in life that had been wrestled into dormancy by their immune system. Twenty-four weeks after completing up to 14 weeks of treatment, 61 percent of the patients receiving a placebo had developed a CMV infection serious enough to require treatment or had discontinued the trial. By contrast, only 38 percent of those treated with letermovir developed that level of CMV infection or did not complete the trial.

Unlike other drugs able to forestall active CMV infection in stem cell transplant patients, letermovir did so without producing unacceptable toxicities. Most of the side effects associated with letermovir were tolerable, including mild cases of nausea or vomiting, and some swelling, investigators found. Letermovir also conferred a survival benefit: at the 24-week mark, 15 percent of the placebo patients had died, compared to 10 percent of those receiving letermovir.

"For the first time, we seem to have a drug that is a true safe and effective preventive for CMV infection in stem cell transplant patients," said the study's lead author, Francisco Marty, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Dana-Farber and BWH. "Letermovir will allow many patients to avoid infection, usually with no or mild side effects, and seems to provide a survival benefit in the first six months post-transplant."

Transplantation of donor hematopoietic stem cells - which give rise to all types of blood cells, including white blood cells of the immune system - is used to treat blood-related cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma, as well as several types of non-cancerous blood disorders. Patients typically receive chemotherapy to wipe out or reduce the bone marrow, where blood cells are formed, followed by an infusion of donor stem cells to rebuild their blood supply and reconstitute their immune system.

While refinements in transplant techniques have sharply improved the safety of the procedure, the reactivation of CMV infection following a transplant has been a longstanding problem.

Infection with CMV, a type of herpes virus, is one of the most common viral infections in the world. In the United States, it's estimated that over 50 percent of people are infected before adulthood. In other parts of the world, infection rates can be significantly higher. The effects of CMV infection can range from no symptoms to a flu-like fever or mononucleosis ("mono") syndrome. Once the immune system has brought the infection under control, the virus persists unobtrusively in the body.

The jolt of a stem cell transplant - the rapid erasure or diminishment of the immune system produced by pre-transplant chemotherapy, as well as measures to prevent graft-versus-host disease - can give CMV a chance to reawaken and run amok before the newly reconstituted immune system takes hold. In the early years of bone marrow transplant therapy, 60 to 70 percent of transplant recipients developed CMV infection, Marty recounts. Of those, 20 to 30 percent contracted CMV pneumonia, and of those, 80 percent died of the disease.

In previous clinical trials, several drugs aimed at preventing CMV infection in stem cell transplant patients either were not effective or produced intolerable side effects. In the absence of safe preventive drugs, physicians worked out a "surveillance" approach in which they provide treatment only when patients develop CMV infection, and only for a short period of time. This strategy has largely been a success: patients now have just a 2 or 3 percent chance of getting CMV disease affecting the lungs or other organs. Still, the often harsh side effects of current drugs were reason to continue the search for a useful preventive agent.

Letermovir works by a different mechanism from previously tested agents, which block an enzyme known as DNA polymerase, which viruses use to duplicate their DNA. (Human cells use the same process to replicate their own DNA.) By contrast, letermovir blocks a process by which CMV is "packaged" inside infected cells - a wrapping that allows it to go on and infect other cells. The fact that this process does not occur in human cells may explain in part why letermovir usually gives rise to only mild side effects, researchers say.

In the trial, patients received letermovir or a placebo beginning an average of nine days after transplant. "The goal was to suppress the virus before it has a chance to become active," Marty remarked. "The results of this trial offer encouragement that letermovir can offer a new strategy for donor stem cell transplant patients in preventing the emergence of CMV infection following transplant."

Explore further: Novel drug prevents common viral disease in stem-cell transplant patients, study finds

A new drug can often prevent a common, sometimes severe viral disease in patients receiving a transplant of donated blood-making stem cells, a clinical trial led by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham ...

A single blood test and basic information about a patient's medical status can indicate which patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) are likely to benefit from a stem cell transplant, and the intensity of pre-transplant ...

Patients with hepatitis C virus infection who received an antiviral drug around the time they underwent liver transplantation saw a high rate of sustained virologic response, according to a Northwestern Medicine phase II ...

Recent studies on a small number of patients with leukemia treated with bone marrow transplantation have suggested that the presence of the common cytomegalovirus (CMV) in patients or their donors may protect against relapse ...

(HealthDay)Umbilical cord blood may work as well as current alternatives for adults and children with leukemiaor even better in some cases, according to a study published in the Sept. 8 issue of the New England Journal ...

Letermovir keeps the ubiquitous Cytomegalovirus in check for weakened immune systems of infected transplant patients.

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New antiviral drug cuts cytomegalovirus infection and improves survival in patients - Medical Xpress

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Miami Herald

Life after a heart attack: She's golfing. He's running. How they did it. Miami Herald The study in which Wilson enrolled injected millions of donor, bone-marrow stem cells into her heart. Stem cells extracted from bone marrow grow rapidly and help regulate the body to heal itself, Hare explained. After a heart attack, an area of the ...

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Life after a heart attack: She's golfing. He's running. How they did it. - Miami Herald

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Kolkata, Feb 23 (PTI) India does not require any specific policy for blood stem cell donations as the existing blood donation system was enough to protect the donors and recipients, a senior doctor said today.

I dont think we need any more (policy) for blood stem cell donation than the one which exists in the current blood banking system to protect the donor and the patient. I dont think more legislation is needed because that will complicate things more, Dr Mammen Chandy, director Tata Memorial Centre, Kolkata said today.

Stating that bone marrow transplantation is the last choice for treating a patient suffering from fatal blood disorders like blood cancer and thalassemia, Dr Chandy rubbished claims of any malpractice in the country relating to bone marrow donation.

Transplantation is the last choice because its not that simple And I dont think there is any malpractice in India currently in relation to bone marrow donation. This may not be true with organ transplantation but certainly there is no unethical practice regarding bone marrow transplantation in any of the sectors, he stated.

On whether there is a need for a law on this matter, the doctor said that the existing rules and regulations were adequate at the moment.

Because here there is nothing involved in it because you are donating something like blood. I think the existing rules and regulations are adequate at the moment, Dr Chandy said.

Cost of bone marrow transplantation is obviously a matter of concern, he said.

On whether there is a need for a policy to keep a control on the expenses involved in transplantation, he said, Cost is obviously a major problem. I dont think that there is anything other than the intrinsic costs of the drugs, the facilities that are required which make this such an expensive procedure

This is published unedited from the PTI feed.

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Blood donation system enough to protect blood stem cell donors - India.com

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Aurangabad: After earning distinction in the field of cadaver organ donations at the state level, the city is now also emerging as a hub for tissue transplant after a city-based private hospital successfully performed Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) on two patients.

"We performed the BMT on two people 25-year-old male and 55-year-old female a few weeks ago. With this, we have become the first and only centre in Marathwada to provide such treatment," Kamalnayan Bajaj Hospital CEO Shamim Khan said.

He described the treatment as complete care from diagnosis to cure at one point to any patient suffering from either genetic or acquired disorder of blood. There exist two forms of BMT namely Autologous BMT and Allogeneic BMT and the Kamalnayan Bajaj Hospital has performed the former procedure on two patients.

"Autologous BMT is where patient's own stem cells are used while for Allogenic BMT, the stem cells are from a matched donor. Both procedures can offer cure to deadly diseases like blood cancers, lymphoma, myeloma and genetic diseases such as thalassemia and sickle cell anemia, among others," said Venkatesh Ekbote, consultant Hematologist at the hospital.

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City hospital successfully performs bone marrow transplant - Times of India

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Scientific research builds its own momentum as one discovery triggers another, building an ongoing wave of unexpected possibilities. In the world of glaucoma, such a surge began when advances in stem cell research opened doors experts had never imagined.

With this new perspective, they began to consider innovative ways to use specialized cells in the eye, like retinal pigment epithelial cells and ganglion cells. Today researchers continue to follow that path, knowing that each small step they take may lead to future glaucoma treatments.

What Are Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE) Cells?

Most people know at least a little about the retina. The retina is a thin tissue that's about an inch in diameter, yet it contains all the photoreceptor cells responsible for beginning vision and their circuits that produce signals that become vision.

If you could look beneath the retina, you'd find a sheet of black cells called the retinal pigment epithelium, (RPE). The easiest way to describe the RPE is to say it supports the retina, but that doesn't begin describe its value. These cells help by renewing the light-absorbing pigments contained in the rod and cone photoreceptors on a daily basis. They also enhance vision by absorbing scattered light. They ensure survival of photoreceptor cells by delivering nutrients, while also serving as a barrier that blocks damaging substances from getting into the retina. The RPE also stops free radicals before they can damage the retina.

The retinal pigment epithelial cells are shaped like a six-sided hexagon, so they fit together as tight as a puzzle. Tiny projections extend from RPE cells, reach out to cover photoreceptor cells and carry nutrients into the cells. When RPE cells are damaged, photoreceptor cells die, ultimately leading to blindness.

What do RPE Cells Have to do Glaucoma?

Glaucoma doesn't typically damage RPE cells, but thanks to advances in stem cell research, it looks like RPE cells may play a crucial role in finding a cure to the degenerative disease. Experts have been studying stem cells for the last seven decades, but their time and effort is beginning to pay off.

Researchers discovered that mature stem cells from various places in the body can be removed and injected with a combination of genes that reprogram the adult cells back into their fresh embryonic state. These cells are called induced pluripotent stem cells. This has been put into practice in the lab, where adult stem cells taken from bone marrow were reprogrammed to grow into various eye cells.

When certain induced pluripotent stem cells are grown together with RPE cells, they can be reprogrammed to turn into photoreceptor cells and other retinal cells. It may even be possible to develop a group of protective nerve cells in the retina -- retinal ganglion cells -- that are damaged by glaucoma. While these amazing discoveries have yet to take shape as a viable treatment option for glaucoma, they certainly make it possible to believe that research using RPE cells may one day lead to a novel stem cell-based treatment that could stop or even reverse the progression of glaucoma.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Glaucoma Research Foundation. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Research on retinal pigment epithelial cells promises new future treatment for glaucoma patients - Science Daily

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Research on retinal pigment epithelial cells promises new future treatment for glaucoma patients – Science Daily | February 23rd, 2017

The search is still on to find a matching stem cell/bone marrow donor for five month old Madalayna Ducharme. The initial search of the Canadian OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network as well as Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide (BMDW) have not yet identified a matching donor for Madalayna.

Madalayna was recently diagnosd with malignant infantile osteopetrosis, a genetic disorder that prevents her bones from working properly and they become too dense. This disorder attacks vision, hearing and is life threatening.

On Friday, February 24th there is another opportunity to help Madalayna find her match. The Katelyn Bedard Bone Marrow Association will host a Get Swabbed! registration event at Holy Names High School 1400 Northwood Street from 10am to 1:30pm.

The general public is invited to join the students and staff at Holy Names High School to keep the groundswell surging in an effort to ultimately find that life saving match for Madalayna.

The age requirement to register as a Stem Cell donor is 17 to 35 years. The registrant must possess a Canadian Government issued health card.

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Still Searching For A StemCell/Bone Marrow Donor For Baby Madalayna - windsoriteDOTca News

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Still Searching For A StemCell/Bone Marrow Donor For Baby Madalayna – windsoriteDOTca News | February 23rd, 2017

Science Daily

Changing the environment within bone marrow alters blood cell ... Science Daily Researchers report they can alter blood cell development through the use of biomaterials designed to mimic characteristics of the bone marrow. and more »

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February 22, 2017 12:53 PM

Bryan Altman

In 2016 Angels ace Garrett Richards took to the mound just six times before being shut down for the season on May 6, 2016 due to a partial tear of his UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) in his elbow, an injury that typically requires Tommy John surgery and a prolonged absence from any baseball activities.

Fortunately for Richards his tear was a unique one as it ran lengthwise along his UCL, as opposed to a standard tear which goes across ones ligament. This, combined with new advances in stem cell technology, gave Richards the option to avoid going under the knife and instead undergo stem cell treatment.

This and much more on the topic of stem cell research and its role in baseball was revealed in a recent piece published byYahoo.coms Jeff Passan, who also went into plenty of detail regarding the nature of the actual stem cell treatment.

From Yahoo.com

A doctor guided a needle into the iliac crest of his pelvic bone and began to extract bone marrow. Richards was wide awake, the blessing of local anesthesia saving him from physical pain but not the anxiety that crept into his head: Is this really going to work?

Within a few minutes, the harvested marrow was hurried to a centrifuge, spun to separate the good stuff, mixed into a slurry of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and readied to inject into Richards damaged right elbow.

Science, bro, Richardsreportedly told Passan. Im a believer now.

Its hard not to be if youre Richards. According to the article, if Richards opted for Tommy John surgery the earliest possible return date for him would have been following the 2017 All-Star break.

Now, Richards is poised to start the season on the hill for the Angels and has been throwing 98 MPH fastballs once again in spring training.

I feel as good as I ever have throwing a baseball, said at the teams spring training facility on Monday.

For Richards, the results have seemingly turned out stellar, and while stem cell treatment could revolutionize baseball, there is still a little bit of skepticism regarding the procedure.

From Yahoo.com

In May 2013, a paper published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine found 30 of 34 overhand throwers with partial UCL tears who used PRP had returned to their previous level of competition. This was reason for celebration. If a player could avoid the 14-month-plus recovery from the surgery, better for him as well as the team.

Another study arrived in 2016 that didnt cast doubt on the value of orthobiologics so much as offer a different avenue: rest. The 28 players used everything from electrical stimulation, ultrasound, laser therapy, massage and other soft-tissue work. And when paired with rest, their return to previous level came in at 84 percent. It was almost exactly as effective as PRP.

Even though Richards is good to go,neither him or the Angels plan on taking any chances with his arm this year.

Passan notes that Richards has used his time off to reassess his mechanics and fix any inefficiencies in his delivery, which should also help him stay healthy.

Hell be targeting a pitch count below 100 for each game and is looking to keep his workload under 200 innings, which should hopefully keep the Angels ace on the mound and off the operating/stem cell treatment table for the foreseeable future.

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Garrett Richards Among Pitchers Using Stem Cell Treatment Over ... - CBS Local

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By Sally Satel By Sally Satel February 21 at 8:04 PM

(Dr. Sally Satel, who has guest-blogged here before, was kind enough to write up this item on a topic that has long interested me; Im delighted to pass it along: -EV)

In 2007, Eugene Volokh, the host of this site, published an essay in the Harvard Law Reviewtitled Medical Self-Defense, Prohibited Experimental Therapies, and Payment for Organs in which he argued that the government should need a very good reason to prevent sick people from saving their own lives.

That insight impels the Right to Try movement, which seeks to give terminally ill patients the right to try drugs that show promise but not have received FDA approval and which has received sympathetic hearings from President Trump and Vice President Pence. One of the leaders of Right to Try reform, the libertarian Goldwater Institute, said it best: We just fundamentally do not believe that you should have to apply to the government for permission to try to save your own life.

That principle has vital implications for patients needing bone marrow and kidney transplants.

Each year, 2,000 to 3,000 individuals with leukemia and other forms of bone marrow disease die while waiting to receive another persons bone marrow cells. Its not that strangers are indifferent to their plight, but that suitable biological matches are hard to find. And even when a match is found, there is a 1-in-2 chance that the needle-in-a-haystack donor either cant be located by registry personnel or, incomprehensibly, refuses to donate even though he had earlier volunteered to be tested.

We can enlarge the pool of potential donors while increasing the likelihood that compatible donors will follow through if they are paid or if sick patients (or charities acting on their behalf) have the Right to Buy, as I call it.

But there is an obstacle to buying. The 1984 National Organ Transplant Act, or NOTA, bans exchange of valuable consideration that is, anything of material worth for solid organs, such as kidneys and livers, as well as for bone marrow.

The Institute for Justice, a libertarian public-interest law firm, fought the prohibition. It sued the Justice Department on behalf of families afraid their ill loved ones would die because they couldnt get a bone marrow transplant.

In a unanimous 2012 ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit rejected the federal governments argument that obtaining bone-marrow stem cells through a needle in a donors arm violates NOTA. The judges based their decision on the fact that modern bone-marrow procurement, a process known as apheresis, is akin to drawing blood. Indeed, filtered stem cells, they held, are merely components of blood, no different from blood-derived plasma, platelets and clotting factors, all of which are replenished by the body within weeks of a donation. Because its legal to compensate blood donors, its also legal to pay bone marrow donors, the court ruled.

Unfortunately, the Department of Health and Human Services rejected the courts ruling. In 2013, it proposed a rule that would extend the NOTA prohibition to bone marrow stem cells. Under the proposed regulation, anyone who accepted material gain for giving bone-marrow stem cells would be subject to NOTAs penalties, facing imprisonment for up to five years. According to HHS, compensation runs afoul of NOTAs intent to ban commodification of human stem cells and to curb opportunities for coercion and exploitation, encourage altruistic donation and decrease the likelihood of disease transmission.

The solicitor general could have asked the Supreme Court to review the 9th Circuits bone-marrow decision, but he declined. Perhaps he grasped the central folly of HHSs position: How could the agency justify its worry about opportunities for coercion and exploitation and the likelihood of disease transmission when it came to bone marrow cells, yet not apply those same concerns to plasma?

For three years, HHS has been silent on its proposed rule. Meanwhile, people are dying because nonprofits that want to begin paying donors on behalf of needy patients cant move forward until they are assured that the agency cant shut them down. The Institute for Justice is considering a legal challenge over the HHS delay, which is causing needless deaths.

But perhaps the lawsuit can wait. With a new administration that is skeptical of overregulation, HHS Secretary Tom Price could withdraw the proposed rule. Ideally, Congress would thwart future regulatory blockades by amending NOTA to stipulate that marrow stem cells are not organs covered by the act.

Changes to NOTA should also be made for other organs. I feel strongly about this on fundamental grounds of liberty but also because, in 2005, I needed to save my own life. I developed kidney failure but could not find a donor. Thank goodness, an angel, or as some readers know her, Virginia Postrel, heard about my predicament and gave me a kidney. And this summer another living saint, Kimberly Hendrickson, who saw how desperate I was many years ago, offered me one of hers when the first transplant began to fail. Every day, 12 people die because no one wasable to come to their rescue and, had a patient offered money for an organ, both the patient and the donor who accepted the money would face felony charges.

Congress could take the bold step of revising NOTA to permit donors who are willing to save the life of a stranger through kidney donation to receive valuable consideration from governments or nonprofit organizations. Or, lawmakers could take the intermediate step of creating a pilot program allowing doctors to study the effect of such measures, as proposed last May by Rep. Matthew Cartwright (D-Pa.), who introduced the Organ Donor Clarification Act of 2016.

Rather than large sums of cash, potential rewards could include a contribution to the donors retirement fund, an income tax credit or a tuition voucher, lifetime health insurance, a contribution to a charity of the donors choice, or loan forgiveness. Only the government, or a government-designated charity, would be allowed to disburse the rewards. Consequently, all patients, not just those with financial means, could benefit. The funds could potentially come from the savings from stopping dialysis, which costs roughly $80,000 a year per person.

The pilot programs, to be designed by individual medical centers, could also impose a waiting period on prospective donors, thereby cooling any impulsivity. Prospective donors would be fully informed about the risks of surgery and carefully screened for physical and emotional health, as all non-compensated kidney donors are now.

The idea of the government standing between a dying person and his salvation is deeply troubling. I know. We need to at least test better ways to recruit more marrow and kidney donors.

Dr. Sally Satelis a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and editor ofWhen Altruism isnt Enough: The Case for Compensating Kidney Donors.

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Right to try, right to buy, right to test - Washington Post

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