“Latest Stem Cells News”

About five years ago, Professor Janet Sawicki at the Lankenau Institute in Pennsylvania read an article about nanoparticles developed by MIT’s Daniel Anderson and Robert Langer for gene therapy, the insertion of genes into living cells for the treatment of disease. Sawicki was working on treating ovarian cancer by delivering — through viruses — the gene for the diphtheria toxin, which kills tumor cells (…)

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TaiGen Biotechnology Co., Ltd. announced today that in a phase 1 study in healthy volunteers TG-0054, a chemokine receptor CXCR4 antagonist, was well tolerated and rapidly mobilized stem cells and endothelial progenitor cells from bone marrow into peripheral blood. The number of CD34+ stem cells in circulation after one dose of TG-0054 was equal or higher than reported cell numbers needed for stem cell transplantation in cancer patients. The observed AEs were all mild and transient. A phase 2 study in stem cell transplantation for multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Hodgkin disease patients is currently being initiated (…)

“We are greatly encouraged by the phase 1 study results which indicates that TG-0054 has the potential to be used alone, not in combination with G- CSF, for allogenic or autologous stem cell transplantation in cancer patients. This should greatly reduce the hospital and other associated cost for such a procedure. Importantly, the activity and safety profile in the phase 1 study will support our future development of TG-0054 in chemosensitization and tissue ischemia, including myocardial infarction, stroke and severe intermittent claudication. Our preclinical animal disease models and the phase 1 study results lend strong support to clinical development for these clinical indications,” said Dr. Ming-Chu Hsu, Chairman & CEO of TaiGen (…)

from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/excellent-stem-cell-mobilization-and-safety-profile-for-tg-0054-62316942.html

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The drug metformin, a mainstay of diabetes care for 15 years, may have a new life as a cancer treatment, researchers said.
In a study in mice, low doses of the drug, combined with a widely used chemotherapy called doxorubicin, shrank breast-cancer tumors and prevented their recurrence more effectively than chemotherapy alone.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence that metformin, marketed as Glugophase by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and available in generic versions, could be a potent antitumor medicine.
They also lend support to an emerging theory that cancer’s ability to survive and resist therapy is regulated by cancer stem cells that drive a tumor’s growth and survival.

Chemotherapy is effective against many tumors, said Kevin Struhl, a Harvard Medical School researcher and principal investigator of the study. “The problem is cancer stem cells acquire resistance” to treatment, he said. “They are able to regenerate the tumor and as a result you end up with a relapse.”
About 5% to 10% of a tumor’s cells are believed to be cancer stem cells, he said.

In the report, being published in the Oct. 1 edition of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, researchers said the combination of metformin and doxorubicin killed both regular cancer cells and cancer stem cells.
In contrast, doxorubicin alone had limited effect on the stem cells.

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read more on http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203278404574413273870984920.html

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Dominick Dunne

Former Hollywood producer Dominick Dunne died at the age of 83 after a long battle with bladder cancer. In past year he traveled to the Dominican Republic and Germany for stem cell treatments.

In the past year, Dunne had traveled to Germany and the Dominican Republic for experimental stem cell treatments to fight his cancer. He wrote that he and actress Farrah Fawcett were in the same clinic in Bavaria but didn’t see each other. Fawcett, a 1970s sex symbol and TV star of “Charlie’s Angels,” died in June at age 62.

In the Chicago Tribune, Liz Smith, a friend, wrote the day before Mr. Dunne’s death:

“The writer Dominick Dunne returned from a trip to Germany for stem cells, etc., but he has been in Roosevelt Hospital since getting back. He says he doesn’t feel too spry but I notice he has been receiving movie stars and VIPs in his room. He was to be moved to his apartment last Friday. We wish him all the best and are glad to report that his sons, Alex and Griffin are with him 100 percent.”

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read full story on examiner.com or the new york observer

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Research has indicated that certain sarcomas come from the mesenchymal stem cells. However, expression of neural stem cells has been noted in others. Identifying and isolating mesenchymal stem cells and neural stem cells relies on finding specific proteins expressed by both types.

In this study, eight different markers representing proteins associated with these two types of stem cells were applied to the 81 tumors. Through cluster analysis, the researchers organized the data into groups showing similar patterns. Two major subgroups of pediatric sarcomas emerged

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Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori di Milano

Methods to provide safer stem cell transplants to individuals who are not completely compatible with the donor are being developed. Encouraging results have come from a post-transplant cellular therapy, which strengthens the immune system against viral infections and tumors, developed for the first time at the National Tumor Institute (INT) in Milan. The INT conducted the first phase I-II study in the world, published in ‘Blood’, whose main objective was to assess the use of a low dose radiochemotherapy, followed by low dose post-transplant infusions CD8-depleted donor lymphocytes after a 50% compatible hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

The objective of the study was to reduce transplant toxicity and improve immune system function after the transplant to reduce mortality due to infections and relapses. Stem cell transplants from fully compatible donors (HLA-identical) are an option for many individuals with blood-borne cancers. However, only 50-60% of these patients are able to find a fully compatible donor in their families or on the international donor registry. For leukemia and lymphoma patients with a high risk for early relapse who are not able to find an identical donor, the only concrete alternative is a transplant from a 50% compatible family donor (haploidentical donor) or umbilical cord stem cell transplants for child or low weight patients.

In the past, the use of partially compatible donors was prevented by severe side effects. New strategies to improve results are increasingly necessary. Twenty-eight adult patients affected by advanced hematological neoplasias who had no other alternative treatment in order to survive took part in the study. Twenty-four of the patients were suffering from lymphoma and four from acute leukemia.

Transplant-related mortality after two years was reduced from 40-50% to 25%. The two-year global survival rate was 44% with a better result for patients with chemosensitive diseases (2-year survival rate of 75%).
On the whole, 54 CD8 depleted donor lymphocyte infusions were performed on 23 patients, using three different doses of cells with the objective of defining which dose favored an efficient reconstitution of immunity against infective agents and residual tumor cells, reducing the probability of inducing aggressive immune responses against the recipient. The infusions were well tolerated by the patients and did not reduce the transplant from taking root and did not induce acute toxicity.

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