“Latest Stem Cells News”

Oncologists are now faced with the challenge of understanding how specialized drugs can strike tumor stem cells and impair their ability to replicate and spread. This is one of the most important questions that researchers will have to answer in upcoming years according to Regina Elena Institute hematologist Michele Milella. In San Francisco at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Congress Milella spoke about future hematology issues, including fighting blood borne tumors with stem cell transplants over the past years.

“The ASH in this sense is an excellent indicator for where research is going, and represents an obligatory stop for hematologists and oncologists who study blood borne tumors. Each year, researchers meet here and outline the direction for future research until the next conference.” The research discussed here is being performed by numerous Italian scientists, assured Milella. “Italian hematology is among the best in the world, among the top in Europe, and even compared to the USA. Here at the ASH numerous high quality results have been presented by Italian research groups.”

From a hematology-oncology perspective, stem cells are considered a target in therapy; on the other hand, totipotent cancer stem cells are considered a possible key in curing cancer. “Here at the ASH we are entering into a new frontier using these types of cells to transplant preventatively treated mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow, to transport therapeutic molecules to diseased cells. Numerous studies are ongoing.”

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Ever since human induced pluripotent stem cells were first derived in 2007, scientists have wondered whether they were functionally equivalent to embryonic stem cells, which are sourced in early stage embryos.

Both cell types have the ability to differentiate into any cell in the body, but their origins — in embryonic and adult tissue — suggest that they are not identical.

Although both cell types have great potential in basic biological research and in cell- and tissue-replacement therapy, the newer form, called IPS cells, have two advantages. They face less ethical constraint, as they do not require embryos. And they could be more useful in cell-replacement therapies: growing them from the patient’s own cells would avoid immune rejection.

But until IPS cells are proven to have the same traits as embryonic stem cells, they cannot be considered to be identical.

In a study published today (Sept. 11), researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report the first full measurement of the proteins made by both types of stem cells. In a study that looked at four embryonic stem cells and four IPS cells, the proteins turned out to be 99 percent similar, says Joshua Coon, an associate professor of chemistry and biomolecular chemistry who directed the project.

“We looked at RNA, at proteins and at structures on the proteins that help regulate their activity and saw substantial similarity between the two stem-cell types,” he says.

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At the San Timoteo Hospital in Termoli-Larino (Molise, a small region in south central Italy, formerly part of the region “Abruzzi e Molise”) everything is ready for stem cells gathering - in conjunction with the orthopedy ward (branch of medicine dealing with diseases of the bones and joints) – which will be used for local treatments, above all on pseudo-arthrosis.

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Stem cell transplantation in a 42-year-old HIV patient with leukemia has wiped out the virus from his body, the doctor of Berlin Charité Hospital confirms.
“The patient is fine,” said Dr. Gero Hutter, a haematologist at the Berlin Charité Hospital. “Today, two years after his transplantation, he is still without any signs of HIV disease and without antiretroviral medication.”

The doctor observed that using the stem cells from a donor who carries a unique gene mutation i.e. delta 32 ccr5 along with a tissue match, could now cure the patient from the HIV virus. Delta 32 ccr5 makes the cells resistant to HIV virus and this mutation is found in a little more than 1 percent of Caucasians.
Dr. Hutter told, “When the recipient got the new bone marrow, his cells could now block out the HIV, and, in effect, he was cured. Bone marrow transplants are high risk, so only lymphoma and leukemia patients take the risk to possibly cure their cancer.”

The study is published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Alessandra Sacco

A study on mice directed by Alessandra Sacco of Stanford University has shown that once inserted into a diseased muscle, just one adult muscular stem cell can reproduce to form an entire ‘family’ of cells and restore lost muscular function. In a leg muscle with no muscular stem cells that has been irreversibly damaged, a single adult stem cell can take root and multiply, restoring muscular function.

The study was presented today in the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Cell Biology
(ASCB) in San Francisco. The muscular stem cells in this case are called ‘satellite cells’, which normally repair muscular tissue when it is damaged. In many degenerative muscular diseases however, this ‘natural repair’ is lacking and the muscular fibers degrade slowly. The validity of stem cell transplants into diseased muscle has been demonstrated on more than one occasion, but this is the first time that a single cell transplant has been performed.
The stem cell family born from the single cell was able to repair the muscle and restore its function, another step forward in stem cell research to cure degenerative muscular diseases.

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An estimated 400.000 Americans suffer from multiple sclerosis, but the findings of a new clinical trial shows promise in the fight to reverse symptoms of MS.
Researchers at Northwestern University conducted a trial using patients’ own stem cells to treat symptoms of multiple sclerosis, reports Early Show correspondent Debbye Turner Bell, and although the study group was small — only 21 patients participated in it — the findings are a huge breakthrough in the fight against MS.

Edwin McClure is strong and healthy now, but just four years ago, his life was very different.
“I would get fatigued. I couldn’t deal with the heat,” McClure said. “I had really bad balance.”
In his senior year of high school, the star football player came down with what he thought was a cold. Then his vision changed.
“It was kind of like somebody turned down a dimmer switch 30 degrees,” McClure said.
It was a neurologist who diagnosed what was happening to Edwin.
“He said, ‘You have the signs of multiple sclerosis,’” McClure said.

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