“Latest Stem Cells News”

Drs. Scott Kitchen, Zoran Galic, Jerry Zack of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center and AIDS Institute and their colleagues demonstrated for the first time that human blood stem cells can be engineered into cells that can target and kill HIV-infected cells. The process could potentially be used against a range of chronic viral diseases.

The study, published Dec. 7 in the-peer reviewed online journal PLoS ONE, provides proof-of-principle, a demonstration of feasibility, that human stem cells can be engineered into the equivalent of a genetic vaccine.

“We have demonstrated in this proof-of-principle study that this type of approach can be used to engineer the human immune system, particularly the T-cell response, to specifically target HIV-infected cells,” said lead investigator Scott G. Kitchen, assistant professor of medicine in the division of hematology and oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of the UCLA AIDS Institute. “These studies lay the foundation for further therapeutic development that involves restoring damaged or defective immune responses toward a variety of viruses that cause chronic disease, or even different types of tumors.”

How will stem cells change the way we think about treating diseases? Here is the 5 year forward look at the world of Stem Cells, from some of the greatest experts in the field.

What are the diseases we’ll be treating, and the tools we’ll be using in 2015? Where will we be in terms of clinical trials? What are the dangers in the stem cell hype, and medical tourism? How will stem cells pave the way for personalized medicine, and more rational treatments? How important will stem cells become in the drug discovery process? Discussed in the episode are the eye (macular degeneration), the skin, diabetes (type 1 & 2), blood and autoimmune diseases, glioblastoma, HIV, and more.

Presented by Bill Kridel, and featuring George Daley, Ron McKay, Rudolf Jaenisch, John Sinden, Alan Trounson, Alan Colman, John Walker, Shinya Yamanaka, Irv Weissman, David Scadden, and Greg Bonfiglio.

from http://biobusinesstv.cmail2.com/t/y/l/uruja/kykdujyhl/k

It’s a doctor’s dream — an unlimited supply of disease-free blood.
And it may not be the stuff of fiction for long, reports CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer.
Someone in the United States needs blood every two seconds. In surgery, on cancer words, on the nation’s battlefields — blood transfusions save lives.
But in the U.S., demand often exceeds supply. And elsewhere, especially in the developing world, there’s a real chance the blood cud be contaminated with diseases such as AIDS or Hepatitis C.

Enter Dr. Marc Turner, a cell biologist from Scotland who received a multi-million dollar research grant to try to make blood in his lab from human stem cells.
“These cells are being generated from human embryonic stem cells, which themselves are generated from three-to-five-day-old human embryos,” Turner says.
Palmer explains that stem cells can be coaxed, theoretically, to grow into any human body part.

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.