“Latest Stem Cells News”

Professor Jeanne Loring

Stem cells show great potential to enable treatments for conditions such as spinal injuries or Lou Gehrig’s disease, and also as research tools. One of the greatest problems slowing such work is that researchers have found major complications in purifying cell mixtures, for instance to remove stem cells that can cause tumors from cells developed for use in medical treatments. But a group of Scripps Research scientists, working with colleagues in Japan, have developed a clever solution to this purification problem that should prove more reliable than other methods, safer, and perhaps 100 times cheaper.

The work appears in the current edition of the journal Cell Research.

Effective tricks for separating stem cells from other types are essential for many emerging medical treatments. These techniques begin with researchers inducing stem cells to take specific forms, or differentiate, for instance into nerve cells. These differentiated cells might then be used to repair a spinal cord injury. Other cells might enable a diabetic’s body to produce adequate insulin.

A key problem is that in the differentiation process, at least some stem cells inevitably remain in their undifferentiated, or pluripotent, state. These cells can grow to form tumors in patients if injected along with differentiated cells, a concern that has already led the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to delay clinical trials for promising stem cell-based therapies.

A New Approach

To date, almost all attempts at purification have focused on developing antibodies—immune system attack cells—that can remove or destroy stem cells in mixtures. But this approach has had shortcomings. Effective antibodies are difficult and expensive to develop, and their use in medical therapies raises safety issues because they are produced in animals.

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A team of Harvard stem cell researchers has succeeded in reprogramming adult mouse skin cells directly into the type of motor neurons damaged in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), best known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). These new cells, which researchers are calling induced motor neurons (iMNs), can be used to study the development of the paralyzing diseases and to develop treatments for them.

Producing motor neurons this way is much less labor intensive than having to go through the process of creating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC, iPS cells), and is so much faster than the iPS method that it potentially could reduce by a year the time it eventually takes to produce treatments for ALS and SMA, said Kevin Eggan, leader of the Harvard team.

Importantly, the direct reprograming does not involve the use of any factors known to trigger cancer or any other disease states, and the factors in fact make the fibroblasts, the connective tissue cells that make and secrete collagen proteins, stop dividing.

The work by Eggan, a member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute principal faculty and an associate professor in Harvard’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (SCRB), and his colleagues builds on and advances work by SCRB co-chair and Professor Doug Melton, who pioneered direct cellular reprogramming, and Marius Wernig of Stanford, who used direct reprogramming to produce generalized neurons.

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Abundant precursor cells can become many types of neurons without introducing tumor risk

In a paper published in the April 25 early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco and colleagues report a game-changing advance in stem cell science: the creation of long-term, self-renewing, primitive neural precursor cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) that can be directed to become many types of neuron without increased risk of tumor formation.

“It’s a big step forward,” said Kang Zhang, MD, PhD, professor of ophthalmology and human genetics at Shiley Eye Center and director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine, both at UC San Diego. “It means we can generate stable, renewable neural stem cells or downstream products quickly, in great quantities and in a clinical grade – millions in less than a week – that can be used for clinical trials and, eventually, for clinical treatments. Until now, that has not been possible.”

Human embryonic stem cells hold great promise in regenerative medicine due to their ability to become any kind of cell needed to repair and restore damaged tissues. But the potential of hESCs has been constrained by a number of practical problems, not least among them the difficulty of growing sufficient quantities of stable, usable cells and the risk that some of these cells might form tumors.

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A revolutionary stem cell procedure may be able to stop ALS, or Lou Gehrig‘s disease, in its tracks.

HealthFirst reporter Leslie Toldo shares the story of one of the few people who have had it done.
ALS is a deadly disease, with a quick and devastating decline. This could be the hope thousands of people have been waiting for.

Fifty-five-year-old Tom Elliott is not a quitter. He has ALS and fights to keep up with the daily routines of his life, even as the disease makes everything harder. “Brushing the teeth has become a real chore. Turning and rolling in bed to get comfortable has become an impossibility. This disease is about having to give up and sacrifice a lot.”

As ALS progresses, it destroys the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control muscle movement until people “cease to be able to move, they become essentially locked in their bodies,” Dr. Nicholas Boulis said.

In a recent published clinical stem cell research study, adult stem cells were shown to help delay Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) progression and improve an ALS patient’s quality of life. This research study was believed to be the first published study comparing ALS patients who had their own stem cells injected into their brain vs a control group.

Thank you very much to ALS Worldwide for providing us with this exciting stem cell research breakthrough in humans- not mice! Any clinical studies like this in the United States? I can’t hear you….

Without further ado- here is the published stem cell research study on ALS: Stem-cell transplantation into the frontal motor cortex in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients

Summary of Adult Stem Cell Therapy for ALS Study

This summary is provided by the good people at ALS Worldwide as well as they went to observe this tremendous stem cell treatment using Adult Stem Cells!

HOSPITAL SAN JOSE TECNOLOGICO DE MONTERREY STEM CELL PROCEDURE

The initial two year clinical test study results of the stem cell procedure instituted by Hospital San Jose Tecnologico de Monterrey, was published in Cytotherapy, February, 2009. Positive results were confirmed through both clinical observation and MRI tractography. It is considered by many within the international neurological community to be the foremost procedure available for minimizing or abrogating ALS symptoms and extending the lifespan of ALS patients. The procedure is a state of the art use of autologous CD-133 (+) stem cells injected into the frontal cortices for the effective replacement of motor neurons.

Representing the ALS WORLDWIDE patient community, we were at Hospital San Jose Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico from June 6-14 to observe the hospitalization and procedures for the first two international patients being provided this stem cell therapy. In a sentence, the official message delivered is clear: “This stem cell procedure is not a cure. We offer nothing more than the promise of stability and extended life expectancy. The opportunity, however, exists for improvement. “

Process of Stem Cells for Lou Gehrig’s Disease

The stem cell preparation procedure is sophisticated and complicated but in the simplest terms, the patient’s blood is purified, extracted and cleansed. Stem cells are extracted and then the one kind of stem cell that can be best coaxed into becoming a neuron is injected into two places in the brain. The patient experiences no pain and very little discomfort during the procedure. A mild sedative is provided and within hours, the patient is back in his or her room, enjoying dinner.

The team effort at Hospital San Jose Tecnologico de Monterrey embraces a cooperative spirit that pervades every aspect of their efforts. Patients and their families are treated with the highest level of concern, respect and support. The hospital itself resembles the finest hotel and provides exemplary care. A more detailed, scientific explanation of the Monterrey experience is currently being prepared and will be posted to ALS WORLDWIDE within the next week.

I hope to post these updates on this breakthrough in stem cell research as well.

original post by Don Margolis

“More funds are necessary for research on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). More resources to aid more serious and controlled research for cures that slow the degenerating effects of the disease, for example using stem cells”, said Claudio Sabelli, an ALS patient and member of the Board of the ‘Viva la Vita’ society, writing with a visually controlled computer that communicates for him, commenting about announcements on research to fight ALS.

Claudio Sabelli

Sabelli said, “As a patient, I have an opinion that is not supported by facts for the simple reason that there are no new developments. I believe that a lot of financing goes towards weak and inconsistent research ideas. I fear that false expectations like the Igf1 or lithium tests are damaging. It is true that without pinpointing the causes that trigger ALS it is impossible to find an efficient remedy, but it’s also true that in the meantime remedies that slow down its degenerating effects can be found. I am referring to all stem cells, including embryonic stem cells.” He added, “It is pointless to continue with useless arguments: stem cells represent a concrete possibility to cure serious pathologies. Research has to enjoy maximum freedom and autonomy.”

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