“Latest Stem Cells News”

A team of doctors of haematology department of Nilratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital performed a blood stem cell transplantation on a patient wherein they successfully re-infused blood stem cells into a patient’s bloodstream on 30 January. The patient is suffering from a type of blood cancer known as multiple myeloma.
Mrs Bela Samanta, a resident of Burdwan, has been a patient of leukaemia for past one year. On 16 December she was admitted to the hospital in a critical condition. Doctors examined her and said there was a need for this transplantation, if the patient wanted to lead a stable life at least for the next five to seven years.

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The metabolic state of glioma stem cells, which give rise to deadly glioblastomas, is significantly different from that of the brain cancer cells to which they give birth, a factor which helps those stem cells avoid treatment and cause recurrence later.

Researchers with the UCLA Department of Radiation Oncology at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center also found for the first time that these glioma stem cells can change their metabolic state at will, from glycolysis, which uses glucose, to oxidative phosphorylation, which uses oxygen.

The glioma stem cells’ ability to change their metabolic state at will also allow these stem cells that seed new cancer growth to evade treatment and remain alive, said Dr. Frank Pajonk, an associate professor of radiation oncology and senior author of the study.

“We found these cancer stem cells are substantially different in their metabolic states than the differentiated cancer cells they create, and since they act differently, they can’t be killed in the same way,” Pajonk said. “And as yet, we don’t have anything to target these glioma stem cells specifically.”

The study is published this week in the early online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cancer cells take up large amounts of glucose, which fuels their grow and spread, and allows them to be differentiated from normal cells under Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning, which captures metabolic activity. Pajonk and his team found that the glioma stem cells took up much less glucose, which makes them difficult to detect with PET.

Targeting cancer metabolic pathways as a treatment has gained new interest in recent years. However, these cancer stem cells that take up less glucose could evade those treatments by utilizing glucose more efficiently through oxidative phosphorylation, which would not be targeted by such drugs.

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The Missouri Roundtable for Life, a St. Louis area association led by conservative Ed Martin is organizing events to collect signatures for a November 2010 referendum.

The proposal, presented to the Secretary of State office, entitled “Amendment for the protection of taxpayer money”, asks to not use taxpayer money to fund abortion, human cloning, and other controversial research.
The group’s website, states that they are concerned with limiting or eliminating the effects of Amendment 2 passed in 2006 by a light majority, a law that protects research permitted by federal laws.

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Gerhard Bauer & Jan A. Nolta

A new experimental technique in the future will remove skin cells from HIV patients, manipulate the cells bringing them to a state similar to that of stem cells, and then re-implant them in the same patient to eliminate the virus. The technique is still in the experimental phase in mice, but according to Gerhard Bauer, presenting the initial results of his study today at the 50th American Society of Hematology Congress in San Francisco, it’s a possibility. Bauer has been working for more than 10 years on this technique together with colleague Joseph Anderson.

The objective is to identify anti-HIV genes and insert them into stem cells produced by the skin. His UC Davis-Sacramento research team will also be present at the conference, and together they will present their study, which will lead to clinical genetic experimentation to demonstrate the safety of their method. Bauer hopes to be able perform clinical experimentation on human beings within five years. “The transformed cells, called pluripotent stem cells, are able to differentiate into different types of cells, which include hematopoietic stem cells found in the bone marrow, which produce various types of immune cells. “The next step is a test on human beings,” said Bauer.

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Researchers from the University of Cambridge have created mammalian cells containing a single set of chromosomes for the first time in research funded by the Wellcome Trust and EMBO. The technique should allow scientists to better establish the relationships between genes and their function.

Mammal cells usually contain two sets of chromosomes – one set inherited from the mother, one from the father. The genetic information contained in these chromosome sets helps determine how our bodies develop. Changes in this genetic code can lead to or increase the risk of developing disease.

To understand how our genes function, scientists manipulate the genes in animal models – such as the fruit fly, zebrafish and mice – and observe the effects of these changes. However, as each cell contains two copies of each chromosome, determining the link between a genetic change and its physical effect – or ‘phenotype’ – is immensely complex.

Now, in research published today in the journal Nature, Drs Anton Wutz and Martin Leeb from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research at the University of Cambridge report a technique which enables them to create stem cells containing just a single set of chromosomes from an unfertilised mouse egg cell. The stem cells can be used to identify mutations in genes that affect the cells’ behaviour in culture. In an additional step, the cells can potentially be implanted into the mouse for studying the change in organs and tissues.

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A growing trend in USA takes some desperate Americans, unhappy with the US law, travel far away up to China and Thailand, for treatments they hope will help them.

http://www.beike.ch/images/stories/Image/video/nniwilliamschina070830.flv#/20071220230_To_China_for_stem_cell_treatment_nniwilliamschina070830.flv http://www.beike.ch/images/stories/Image/video/BeikeOnCNN.flv#/Europe_su_CNN_BeikeOnCNN.flv

from NBC , CNN

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