StemCell Therapy

A bit of irony popped up this
week in the wake of approval of $151 million in awards by the
California stem cell agency.

"We will take CIRM money last. We
don't want to be in a position where, years from now, we are actually
forced to sell [our products] in California at a loss."

“We are extremely grateful to CIRM
for its support.”

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Take a close look at the athletes competing in this year's Summer Olympic Games in London --their musculature will tell you a lot about how they achieved their elite status. Endless hours of training and commitment to their sport played a big role in building the bodies that got them to the world's premier athletic competition. Take an even closer look--this one requires microscopy--and you'll see something else, something embedded in the genetic blueprints of these young men and women that's just as important to their success. [More]

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From Nature magazine

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One day in early 1995 a man named bob massie walked into my office at the outpatient clinic of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Massie told me he had been infected with HIV--the virus that causes AIDS--for 16 years and yet had never shown any symptoms. My physical examination confirmed he was healthy, in stark contrast to all other patients I saw that day. At that time, a new combination of drugs was being tested that would eventually slow the progressive decline in immune function that HIV caused. In 1995, however, most people who had been infected with HIV for a decade or more had already progressed to AIDS--the stage marked by the inability to fight off other pathogens. The young man standing before me had never taken anti-HIV medication and strongly believed that if I learned the secret to his good fortune, the information could help others to survive what was then generally thought to be a uniformly fatal disease.

[More]

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Tears and a runny nose can be unpleasant on a windy day, but these mucosal secretions play a vital role in protecting the body from viruses and other malicious microbes. Unfortunately, mucus is also adept at washing away medication designed to treat infections and inflammation that occur when an infectious agent is successful in penetrating the body's defenses [More]

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Proposition 71 last week once again
stood in the way of action by the $3 billion California stem cell
agency.

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

A bit of irony popped up this
week in the wake of approval of $151 million in awards by the
California stem cell agency.

"We will take CIRM money last. We
don't want to be in a position where, years from now, we are actually
forced to sell [our products] in California at a loss."

“We are extremely grateful to CIRM
for its support.”

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

By Lisa Esposito HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 1 (HealthDay News) -- While scientists hotly debate the existence of cancer stem cells, three related new studies, all conducted on mice, provide some supporting evidence.

Stem cells are the foundation for healthy cell growth in the body. Some researchers believe that malignant stem cells also exist -- so-called cancer stem cells that generate tumors and resist treatment by simply re-growing afterward.

"Cancer stem cells are still controversial, but with progress in studies like these, it's less about whether they exist and more about 'what does this mean?'" said Dr. Max Wicha, director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, who is familiar with the new findings.

Appearing online Aug. 1 in the journal Nature, one study involved mice with glioblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor in adults and a particularly lethal cancer.

Researchers led by Luis Parada, a professor and chairman of developmental biology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, genetically engineered mice so they would develop glioblastoma.

Then they developed a "transgene" designed only to be active in stem cells in healthy adult brains. They marked this transgene with a green fluorescent protein so the researchers would see it wherever it appeared.

To this transgene they added a virus gene that would self-destruct if treated with the drug acyclovir.

Next, they put the transgene into the mice, which developed tumors. In every mouse, a subset of cells in the malignant brain tumor cells was green.

"The next obvious question was: Since the 'transgene' was designed to be active in stem cells, might these be stem cells?" Parada said.

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Evidence Grows That Cancer Has Its Own Stem Cells

Not one, not two, but three brand new studies point to growing evidence that the reason cancer is so stubbornly resistant to treatment is that it has its very own stem cells. These cells may allow the cancer to start growing again. Speaking to a HealthDay reporter, Dr. Max Wicha, director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, commented on one of the studies, which was published online in the journal Nature."Cancer stem cells are still controversial, but with progress in studies like these, it's less about whether they exist and more about 'what does this mean?'" he said.

One study involved mice with a common and particularly lethal form of brain cancer. Lead researcher Luis Prada of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and colleagues genetically engineered mice so they would develop the cancer. After that they created a "transgene" that would only to become active in stem cells in healthy adult brains and they gave the transgene a green fluorescent marker. Finally, they added a virus gene that would self-destruct if treated with a drug called acyclovir. When they put the transgene into the mice with tumors, cells in the tumors were green.

HealthDay quotedPrada as saying, "The next obvious question was: Since the 'transgene' was designed to be active in stem cells, might these be stem cells?" To answer their question, the research team gave acyclovir to the mice. "And when we did that, the tumors stopped growing," Prada said.

"It's interesting that all the studies came to the same conclusion with different types of cancer," Wicha told HealthDay. He added that early clinical studies are already in the works using drugs to target the cancer stem cells.

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Cancer May Have Its Own Stem Cells

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Researchers at San Diego-based life science organizations have discovered a molecule that converts stem cells into healthy heart cells, possibly setting the stage for therapies that would replace some heart transplants, according to a study published in a scientific journal Friday.

The finding published in the journal Cell Stem Cell could lead to new treatments for heart disease. The study was conducted at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, the Human BioMolecular Research Institute, and ChemRegen Inc.

The molecule known as ITD-1 is able to generate an unlimited supply of heart cells, which would give scientists more cells to study in their research and give physicians healthy cells to use to treat diseased hearts, according to the study.

Mark Mercola, director of Sanford-Burnham's Muscle Development and Regeneration Program, said heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, but doctors can't replace damaged heart muscle.

"The only way to effectively replace lost heart muscle cells -- called cardiomyocytes -- is to transplant the entire heart," said Mercola, the senior author of the study. "Using a drug to create new heart muscle from stem cells would be far more appealing than heart transplantation."

Stem cells were targeted for the study because they can self-replicate and convert to other, specialized types of cells. The challenge for scientists is to discover the signals that direct the stem cells to turn into the types of cells they want.

The researchers said ITD-1 works by preventing a protein from sending signals to cells that regulate various functions, allowing them to re-create themselves into heart cells.

According to Sanford-Burnham, Mercola has been looking for ways to convert stem cells into heart cells for 15 years.

"This particular molecule could be useful to enhance stem cell differentiation in a damaged heart," said Erik Willems, another author of the study. "At some point, it could become the basis for a new therapeutic drug for cardiovascular disease -- one that would likely limit scar spreading in heart failure and promote new muscle formation."

According to Sanford-Burnham, Mercola, Willems, and John Cashman of the Human BioMolecular Research Institute are now working with San Diego biotech company ChemRegen Inc. to develop ITD-1 into a drug that one day might be used to treat patients.

The rest is here:
SD researchers find stem cells can repair damaged heart tissue

(Credit: ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP/Getty Images)

By Michelle Durham

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have teamed up with their counterparts all over the world, working to develop human organs from the stem cells of the patient.

Using a 3-D printer, and other tools, their goal is to eradicate the risk of rejection by building organs that wont require the immunosuppressant drugs current patients have to take.

Professor of Innovation in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Christopher Chen says he and his colleagues have been working hard on using stem cells to engineer tissues.

One of the big limitations for being able to assemble the cells into larger structures such as hearts or livers [is that] once you form a tissue that is larger then a certain size all the cells in the center of that block will starve because they are not getting access to oxygen or blood, explains Dr. Chen.

Postdoctoral fellow Jordan Miller who works with Chen saw an exhibit featuring donated human organs filled with silicone so Miller wondered if he could create the pathways for the blood flow first and then build the organs around it.

Right now they can make pathways the size of a pinky, but Chen and Miller hope that in 10 years time the technology will be advanced enough to create an organ from these gels in their lab.

But it will be many more years before they can be transplanted into a patient.

Read this article:
Scientists Work To Develop Human Organs From Stem Cells

Aug. 5, 2012, 3 a.m.

A GROWING number of overseas clinics touting stem cell therapy for conditions ranging from sexual disorders to HIV are targeting Australia, where such treatments are restricted.

Australian scientists have raised concerns about so-called ''stem cell tourism'', saying many of the treatments offered are unproven, untested and potentially deadly.

The Swiss firm Fetal Cell Technologies International has been advertising in Australia since last year and Emcell, based in Ukraine, started promoting its services last month.

It is estimated as many as 200 Australians have travelled overseas for the therapy. The secretary for science policy at the Australian Academy of Science, Bob Williamson, said he empathised with the desperation of seriously ill people but warned against the unproven therapies, which can cost up to $60,000.

''The therapies are almost all untested and unproven and sometimes they have killed people,'' Professor Williamson said. The Sun-Herald's calls to Emcell's Melbourne office were not returned.

Stem Cells Australia's Megan Munsie, who is conducting a study into stem cell tourism with Monash University, said many people she interviewed were unaware of the risks of therapy overseas.

''We're not talking about rubbing something into your skin or taking a capsule, we are talking about often a very invasive procedure,'' she said.

Read the rest here:
Fears over 'stem cell tourism' Save

Aug. 5, 2012, 3 a.m.

A GROWING number of overseas clinics touting stem cell therapy for conditions ranging from sexual disorders to HIV are targeting Australia, where such treatments are restricted.

Australian scientists have raised concerns about so-called ''stem cell tourism'', saying many of the treatments offered are unproven, untested and potentially deadly.

The Swiss firm Fetal Cell Technologies International has been advertising in Australia since last year and Emcell, based in Ukraine, started promoting its services last month.

It is estimated as many as 200 Australians have travelled overseas for the therapy. The secretary for science policy at the Australian Academy of Science, Bob Williamson, said he empathised with the desperation of seriously ill people but warned against the unproven therapies, which can cost up to $60,000.

''The therapies are almost all untested and unproven and sometimes they have killed people,'' Professor Williamson said. The Sun-Herald's calls to Emcell's Melbourne office were not returned.

Stem Cells Australia's Megan Munsie, who is conducting a study into stem cell tourism with Monash University, said many people she interviewed were unaware of the risks of therapy overseas.

''We're not talking about rubbing something into your skin or taking a capsule, we are talking about often a very invasive procedure,'' she said.

Read the original post:
Fears over 'stem cell tourism' Save

A GROWING number of overseas clinics touting stem cell therapy for conditions ranging from sexual disorders to HIV are targeting Australia, where such treatments are restricted.

Australian scientists have raised concerns about so-called ''stem cell tourism'', saying many of the treatments offered are unproven, untested and potentially deadly.

The Swiss firm Fetal Cell Technologies International has been advertising in Australia since last year and Emcell, based in Ukraine, started promoting its services last month.

It is estimated as many as 200 Australians have travelled overseas for the therapy. The secretary for science policy at the Australian Academy of Science, Bob Williamson, said he empathised with the desperation of seriously ill people but warned against the unproven therapies, which can cost up to $60,000.

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''The therapies are almost all untested and unproven and sometimes they have killed people,'' Professor Williamson said. The Sun-Herald's calls to Emcell's Melbourne office were not returned.

Stem Cells Australia's Megan Munsie, who is conducting a study into stem cell tourism with Monash University, said many people she interviewed were unaware of the risks of therapy overseas.

''We're not talking about rubbing something into your skin or taking a capsule, we are talking about often a very invasive procedure,'' she said.

See the original post here:
Fears over 'stem cell tourism'

Public release date: 3-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Elisabeth (Lisa) Lyons elyons@cell.com 617-386-2121 Cell Press

Human HLA genes the genes that allow our immune system to tell the difference between our own cells and foreign invaders are evolving much more rapidly than previously thought, according to an article online on August 3rd in Trends in Genetics. The resulting degree of variation improves our ability to fight off disease, but could also present challenges to current worldwide efforts aimed at identifying potential donors for patients undergoing stem cell transplantation.

"This new work makes clear the daunting and near hopeless challenge of keeping track of the continuous output from the HLA mutational spigot," says first author William Klitz, from the University of California, Berkeley.

HLA proteins sit at the surface of human cells. Every individual has a specific HLA on the surface of their cells and these proteins effectively act as an identification card. Any other cells that have the same HLA on the outside are recognized as 'self'; foreign particles like bacteria or viruses are identified as invaders and the immune system kicks in to remove them. The same system that helps us fight off germs makes organ or stem cell transplantation difficult. Our bodies treat transplanted tissue as foreign and reject it. Unless, however, the patient and the donor share the same HLA genes. As a result, worldwide efforts are underway to identify all possible HLA variants, in the hopes of more effectively matching patients with potential donors.

The difficulty is that within the human population, HLA genes are mutating rapidly and Klitz estimates that more than a million variants exist in the current population. Trying to identify all the variants will be nearly impossible and ultimately pointless, according to Klitz, because of how quickly these genes are evolving. This rapid evolution is a boon in some ways because it means that, at the population level, our immune systems are getting better at fighting off pathogens. For transplant recipients, however, the most likely implication is that the best chance for a match will be found in first-degree relatives rather than in a worldwide search for donors.

###

Klitz et al.: "New reservoirs of HLA alleles: Pools of rare variants enhance immune defense"

William Klitz, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA Philip Hedrick, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA Ed Louis, Centre for Genetics and Genomics, University of Nottingham, UK

Read the original here:
Unexpected variation in immune genes poses difficulties for transplantation

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Researchers at San Diego-based life science organizations have discovered a molecule that converts stem cells into healthy heart cells, possibly setting the stage for therapies that would replace some heart transplants, according to a study published in a scientific journal Friday.

The finding published in the journal Cell Stem Cell could lead to new treatments for heart disease. The study was conducted at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, the Human BioMolecular Research Institute, and ChemRegen Inc.

The molecule known as ITD-1 is able to generate an unlimited supply of heart cells, which would give scientists more cells to study in their research and give physicians healthy cells to use to treat diseased hearts, according to the study.

Mark Mercola, director of Sanford-Burnham's Muscle Development and Regeneration Program, said heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, but doctors can't replace damaged heart muscle.

"The only way to effectively replace lost heart muscle cells - called cardiomyocytes - is to transplant the entire heart," said Mercola, the senior author of the study. "Using a drug to create new heart muscle from stem cells would be far more appealing than heart transplantation."

Stem cells were targeted for the study because they can self-replicate and convert to other, specialized types of cells. The challenge for scientists is to discover the signals that direct the stem cells to turn into the types of cells they want.

The researchers said ITD-1 works by preventing a protein from sending signals to cells that regulate various functions, allowing them to re-create themselves into heart cells. According to Sanford-Burnham, Mercola has been looking for ways to convert stem cells into heart cells for 15 years.

"This particular molecule could be useful to enhance stem cell differentiation in a damaged heart," said Erik Willems, another author of the study. "At some point, it could become the basis for a new therapeutic drug for cardiovascular disease - one that would likely limit scar spreading in heart failure and promote new muscle formation."

According to Sanford-Burnham, Mercola, Willems, and John Cashman of the Human BioMolecular Research Institute are now working with San Diego biotech company ChemRegen Inc. to develop ITD-1 into a drug that one day might be used to treat patients.

See the original post:
Stem cell research by local science organizations could lead to new treatments for heart disease

Scientists have found evidence that cancerous tumors might originate as stem cells - undifferentiated master cells which can grow into any tissue in the body. Investigators say if this proves true, it could provide a new way to prevent or cure cancer.

Stem cells are primitive structures in the human body that normally transform themselves into healthy, specialized tissue, everything from blood and bone cells to heart and liver cells. Now there is evidence that stem cells can also develop into cancer cells that multiply into life-threatening tumors.

The conventional theory of cancer formation is that it begins with the division of a single mutated cell. The new study challenges this theory with evidence that mutated, cancerous cells may develop directly from stem cells.

Luis Parada, head of developmental biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and his colleagues studied an aggressive, lethal form of human brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme in genetically bred mice. The cancer is usually fatal within a year of diagnosis. Researchers used chemotherapy on the rodents that temporarily halted the growth of their tumors. But when investigators stopped the drug, the cancer came back. Parada says a molecular analysis showed the tumors recurred because a small number of stem cells clustered within the brain tissue began dividing, producing new tumor cells.

But when a group of mice with glioblastoma were given both chemotherapy and a drug that destroyed the stem cells in their brain tissue, their cancer was cured.

Parada says the findings could radically change the way cancer is treated.

Then its no longer valid to evaluate the volume of a tumor and say whether therapy is working or not. What will be important is to know is how that therapy is affecting the cancer stem cells within the tumor, Parada said.

Two other independent studies published this week provide additional evidence that stem cells may be the starting point for cancerous tumors. One team of researchers from Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels, Belgium, and the Wellcome Trust Cancer Research Institute in Britain looked at the role of the master cells in the development of squamous cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer.

Another group of investigators at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands, engineered a multi-colored model of an intestinal tumor known as an adenoma so they could trace the progression of stem cells to an early-stage tumor. Researchers tagged the master cells with a red color and watched as they produced a protein that stimulated the growth of pre-cancerous blue cells.

Researcher Hugo Snippert, who created the adenoma model, says there can be many genetic mutations in cells that dont cause cancer. He says its only when the stem cells are mutated that cancer develops.

Read the original post:
Study Identifies Stem Cells as Cancer Source

SAN DIEGO - Researchers at a pair of San Diego-based life scienceorganizations announced Thursday the discovery of a molecule that converts stemcells into healthy heart cells, ending a 15-year hunt.

The finding, published in Friday's issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell,could lead to new treatments for heart disease. The study was performed atSanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, the Human BioMolecular ResearchInstitute, and ChemRegen Inc.

The molecule known as ITD-1 is able to generate an unlimited supply ofheart cells, which would give scientists more heart cells to study in theirresearch, and give physicians healthy cells to use to treat diseased hearts,according to the study.

Mark Mercola, director of Sanford-Burnham's Muscle Development andRegeneration Program, said heart disease is the leading cause of death in theU.S., but doctors can't replace damaged heart muscle.

"The only way to effectively replace lost heart muscle cells -- calledcardiomyocytes -- is to transplant the entire heart," said Mercola, the seniorauthor of the study. "Using a drug to create new heart muscle from stem cellswould be far more appealing than heart transplantation."

Stem cells were targeted for the study because they can self-replicateand convert to other, specialized types of cells. The challenge for scientistsis to discover the signals that direct the stem cells to turn into the types ofcells they want.

Link:
15 Year Stem Cell Study Yields Healthy Heart Cells

Researchers have discovered a molecule that converts stem cells into heart cells, which could be used to replace diseased or damaged tissue in patients suffering from heart disease.

Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham), the Human BioMolecular Research Institute, and ChemRegen, Inc. have been searching for molecules that convert stem cells to heart cells for about eight yearsand now they've found one.

In the new study, the researchers have described how they sifted through a large collection of drug-like chemicals and uncovered ITD-1, a molecule that can be used to generate unlimited numbers of new heart cells from stem cells.

"Heart disease is the leading cause of death in this country. Because we can't replace lost cardiac muscle, the condition irreversibly leads to a decline in heart function and ultimately death. The only way to effectively replace lost heart muscle cellscalled cardiomyocytesis to transplant the entire heart," Mark Mercola, senior author of the study, said.

"Using a drug to create new heart muscle from stem cells would be far more appealing than heart transplantation," he said.

Stem cells are important because they do two unique things self-renew, producing more stem cells and differentiate, becoming other, more specialized cell types.

To obtain a large number of a certain cell type, such as heart cells, the hard part is figuring out the signals that direct them to become the desired cell type.

Mercola's group has been hunting for heart-inducing signals for 15 yearsin embryos and in stem cells.

To find a synthetic molecule that might one day lead to a drug therapy to regenerate the heart, they joined forces with a team of medicinal chemists at the Human BioMolecular Research Institute led by John Cashman, Ph.D.

With funding from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, they used sophisticated robotic technology to methodically test a large collection of drug-like chemicals, looking for that needle in a haystack that, when added to stem cells, results in cardiomyocytes.

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How to mend a broken heart

Stem cells fuel cancer

There's new information on just how powerful cancer cells can be. Three new studies are out that could answer just how cancer can return even after chemotherapy.

Scientists believe cancer returns because the cancer cells themselves contain their own pool of stem cells that can multiply and fuel the cancer.

Stem cells in healthy tissues are known for their ability to produce any kind of cell. The new research deals with a different kind, cancer stem cells. Some researchers, but not all, believe they lurk as a persisting feature in tumors.

Over the last decade, studies have found evidence for them in tumors like breast and colon cancers. But this research has largely depended on transplanting human cancer cells into mice that don't have immune systems, an artificial environment that raises questions about the relevance of the results.

Now, three studies reported online Wednesday in the journals Nature and Science present evidence for cancer stem cells within the original tumors. Again, the research relies on mice. That and other factors mean the new findings still won't convince everyone that cancer stem cells are key to finding more powerful treatments.

Exercise benefits depression

Your daily trip to the gym may be more beneficial than you think. A new study out shows exercise is an effective tool in warding off depression.

Researchers looked at participants who were depressed and had heart disease. Those who combined the medication Zoloft within 90 minutes of exercise, got more relief than those who took a placebo pill.

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Health Headlines: Stem cells fuel cancer