People who have experienced significant muscle damage have new hope thanks to Evolved.Bio, a startup that has developed innovative technology that can regenerate muscle tissue in a highly effective way.
Other biotech companies use natural or synthetic materials along with cells to create in vitro-grown tissue replacements, building blocks that can be implanted into the human body. But a patient's body might register these as foreign objects, leading to medical complications or interference with the body's natural healing process.
Evolved.Bio's method for making in-vitro tissue circumvents that problem, increasing positive outcomes for patients. The paper, "Anchored Cell Sheet Engineering: A Novel Scaffold-Free Platform for in vitro Modeling," was published in Advanced Functional Materials.
MS Patients See Encouraging Results From Injectable Stem Cell Therapy Trial
The very early-stage cohort only involved 15 patients, but their observed drop in disease progression is promising nonetheless.
By Adrianna Nine November 30, 2023 https://www.extremetech.com/science/ms- ... rapy-trial
Researchers in Italy and the United Kingdom have devised a potential method of multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment using injectable stem cells. Though the therapy is still in very early stages of testing, a small trial involving 15 MS patients has yielded optimistic results.
A collaborative effort between the University of Cambridge, the University of Milan Bicocca, and Hospital Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, the treatment is aimed at rebuilding central nervous system (CNS) tissues damaged by MS. A hallmark of MS is the corruption of macrophages, or immune cells that ingest foreign material to prevent or mitigate the spread of disease. As MS becomes more severe, macrophages begin attacking the patient’s CNS, resulting in nerve cell damage, inflammation, and the formation of impulse-blocking scar tissue, called sclerosis.
This experimental treatment leverages stem cells to repair some of that damage. After researchers program stem cells to become brain stem cells, they inject the material into the CNS, where the cells can proliferate and abate existing gaps. This method proved effective during a previous trial involving mice, thus enabling the team to move cautiously into human trials.
Mortality related to end stage liver disease is ranked as the 12th most common cause of death in the U.S. Liver transplantation remains the only treatment for end stage liver disease, but there is a critical shortage of organ donors, necessitating a dire need for new forms of treatment.
New research from Boston Medical Center and Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine's Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM) found evidence that a novel stem cell treatment using mRNA technology encapsulated into nanoparticles (LNP) that were successfully used to produce the COVID-19 vaccines, may boost the natural repair mechanism of the liver to regress the diseased tissue caused by either an acute or chronic liver injury.
Published in Cell Stem Cell, researchers identified a specific receptor present in the stem cells that can be recognized and activated by the ligand-protein called vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA).
Researchers at UCL and UCLH have successfully completed the first trial of a therapy designed to restore hearing loss. The REGAIN trial, the results of which were published in Nature Communications, was the first study of a treatment aimed at restoring lost hearing, focusing on a drug with the technical name gamma-secretase inhibitor LY3056480.
The researchers found that while the therapy did not restore hearing across the group of adults with mild to moderate hearing loss, a deeper analysis of the data showed changes in various hearing tests in some patients, suggesting the drug has some activity in the inner ear.
These so-called efficacy signals call for further development of LY3056480—using the learnings from this trial.
Trial participants were aged between 18 and 80, hailed from the UK, Germany, and Greece, and had mild to moderate hearing loss. 15 patients took part in the phase 1 trial, which showed the treatment was safe and well tolerated, and 44 patients took part in the phase 2a trial designed to establish if the drug worked.
Researchers develop shortcut to generate brain stem cells for age-related disease research https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03- ... cells.html
by The University of Hong Kong
Credit: Nucleic Acids Research (2023). DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkad597
A research team from the School of Biomedical Sciences, LKS Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), has achieved a breakthrough in stem cell research, offering tools that can be used for patients who require highly personalized care.
The team has developed an innovative method to transform blood and skin cells into neural stem cells, overcoming the limitations of current stem cell research techniques while opening up new possibilities for studying and working toward treatments for age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The findings are published in Science Advances and Nucleic Acids Research.
The human body consists of approximately 200 different cell types, each playing a critical role in maintaining overall health. However, accessing and analyzing certain cell types, such as neurons located deep within the brain, have been challenging.
Losing a large amount of soft tissue from an injury or cancer may require reconstructive surgery. These surgeries typically rely on a structural framework that holds cells or tissues together made from hydrogels or other biomaterials that provide support for new blood vessels to grow. But when these frameworks are made from bulk hydrogels, they have several limitations that can result in slow and disorganized blood vessel growth, leading to poor patient outcomes.
To overcome these limitations, researchers at The Pennsylvania State University have developed a new synergistic approach that combines a new framework (scaffold) made from granular hydrogels with a surgical technique called micropuncture. Their preclinical method, published in the journal Small, could rapidly grow organized blood vessels in live rats.
"The researchers' hybrid approach to revascularization represents a significant advance in the field of tissue engineering and regeneration. This technique could be applied to a variety of blood-vessel conditions found in cardiovascular disease, such as coronary heart disease, the most common type of heart disease in the U.S.," said Tuba Fehr, Ph.D., program director in the NIBIB Division of Discovery Science and Technology.
Drinking milk helps your bones grow big and strong, but what if direct exposure to light could help, too? Now, researchers from Japan report that lighting up bone tissue could help treat bone disease.
In a study published last month in Scientific Reports, researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) have revealed that a treatment approach based on light could help activate bones to repair themselves.
Bones are constantly being remodeled through the action of osteoclasts, which break down bone tissue, and osteoblasts, which create new bone tissue. Both cell types develop from immature precursor cells, and controlling their activity is a promising approach for treating bone growth disorders.
A Mayo Clinic study shows stem cells derived from patients' own fat are safe and may improve sensation and movement after traumatic spinal cord injuries. The findings from the Phase I clinical trial appear in Nature Communications. The results of this early research offer insights into the potential of cell therapy for people living with spinal cord injuries and paralysis for whom options to improve function are extremely limited.
In the study of 10 adults, the research team noted seven participants demonstrated improvements based on the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale. Improvements included increased sensation when tested with pinprick and light touch, increased strength in muscle motor groups, and recovery of voluntary anal contraction, which aids in bowel function.
In a study published in Cell Stem Cell, researchers led by Profs. Dai Jianwu and Zhao Yannan from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have demonstrated the remarkable role of early developmental spinal cord extracellular matrix (ECM) in promoting neuronal axon growth and functional maturation, as well as enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and spinal cord organoids in rat spinal cord injury (SCI).
For adult mammals, SCI is a devastating blow due to the multiple factors that inhibit regeneration within spinal cord tissues along with the weak regenerative capacity of neurons, ultimately leading to functional loss after injury.
Pulmonary diseases are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. For many progressive lung diseases like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a key issue is a low supply of new stem cells to repair and reverse damage. These cells are responsible for regenerating and increasing the growth of healthy tissue—without them, lung function decreases and a range of severe illnesses can take hold.
But a team of scientists at Scripps Research and its drug discovery arm, the Calibr-Skaggs Institute for Innovative Medicines, has now developed a lung-targeted, druglike small molecule to stimulate the growth of lung stem cells. These new findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provide a biological proof of concept for activating one of the body's regenerative pathways and restoring damaged lung tissue.
This approach could transform the treatment of severe pulmonary diseases, notably as CMR316—Calibr-Skaggs' similar therapy for treating IPF—is set to enter a phase 1 clinical trial this summer.
In a first-of-its-kind clinical trial, researchers found that intravenous therapies made from virus-specific T-cells (VST) can effectively treat immunocompromised pediatric patients, far surpassing the current standard of care, according to new research published in Nature Communications.
More than 60% of patients in the phase 2 clinical trial led by investigators from Children's National Hospital and Huntsman Cancer Institute responded to the innovative VST therapy.
This new treatment uses blood from healthy donors to manufacture a highly specialized immune therapy that, when given to immune-compromised patients, prompts their immune system to fight off potentially life-threatening viruses, including cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr, and adenovirus. Without this therapy, estimates suggest that less than 30% of patients would recover using standard protocols.
Autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS) are disorders of the immune system associated in this case with demyelination of the central nervous system (CNS). The term demyelination describes damage to the layer covering nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord.
Recently, medical researchers have been exploring the potential of treating these diseases by transplanting autologous hematopoietic cells or blood stem cells (i.e., immature cells found in the peripheral blood and bone marrow of patients). While this possible treatment has been the focus of various studies, its effects and cellular underpinnings remain poorly understood.
Thistle extract accelerates nerve regeneration by up to 29%
By Paul McClure
April 22, 2024
Nature has again proven effective in treating health conditions, this time nerve injury. According to a new study, a compound found in the blessed thistle plant accelerates the regeneration of damaged nerves, restoring motor function and touch sensation.
Damaged nerve fibers (axons) in the peripheral nervous system can regenerate themselves, but complete functional recovery often doesn’t occur. That’s because the Schwann cells responsible for regeneration stop providing support after about three months. If the restoration of nerve function, called reinnervation, hasn’t happened in that time, the axonal injury often results in lifelong incomplete recovery and can lead to nerve or neuropathic pain.
In a study published in Cell Stem Cell, USC scientists report significant progress in cultivating nephron progenitor cells (NPCs), the cells destined to form the kidney's filtration system, the nephrons. NPCs hold immense promise for understanding kidney development, modeling diseases, and discovering new treatments.
"By enhancing our capability to grow NPCs from human stem cells, we create a new avenue for understanding and combating congenital kidney diseases and cancer," said corresponding and lead author Zhongwei Li, an assistant professor of medicine, and stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
In the study Li Lab postdocs Biao Huang and Zipeng Zeng and their collaborators improved the chemical cocktail for generating and growing NPCs in the laboratory.
This improved cocktail enables the sustained growth of both mouse and human NPCs in a simple 2-dimensional format. This marks a major improvement over the previous 3-dimensional system, which was not only more cumbersome, but also limited the ability to perform genome editing on the cells.
The cocktail also enables the expansion of induced NPCs (iNPCs) from human pluripotent stem cells. These iNPCs closely resemble native human NPCs. With this approach, iNPCs can be generated from any individual starting with a simple blood or skin biopsy. This approach will facilitate the creation of patient-specific kidney disease models and enhance efforts to identify nephron targeted drugs.
Spinal red-light therapy protects and regenerates damaged nerve cells
By Paul McClure
May 06, 2024
Directly applying red-light therapy to a damaged spinal cord protects and regenerates nerve cells, leading to a return of motor and sensory function, according to new research. The treatment could expand the currently limited treatments available to people with spinal cord injuries.
Spinal cord injuries (SCIs) caused by things like falls, sporting accidents and road traffic collisions can lead to profound, lifelong disability. Unfortunately, many don’t recover completely, especially if the injury is severe.
The options to repair SCIs remain limited, so researchers have long focused on developing alternative treatments. In a new study, researchers from the University of Birmingham in the UK determined the optimal dose of red-light therapy needed to restore function and stimulate nerve cell growth in an injured spinal cord.
Birmingham researchers have shown that PEPITEM, a naturally-occurring peptide (small protein), holds promise as a new therapeutic for osteoporosis and other disorders that feature bone loss, with distinct advantages over existing drugs.
PEPITEM (Peptide Inhibitor of Trans-Endothelial Migration) was first identified in 2015 by University of Birmingham researchers.
The latest research, published in Cell Reports Medicine, shows for the first time that PEPITEM could be used as a novel and early clinical intervention to reverse the impact of age-related musculoskeletal diseases, with data demonstrating that PEPITEM enhances bone mineralization, formation and strength, and reverses bone loss in animal models of disease.
World-first tooth-regrowing drug will be given to humans in September
By Bronwyn Thompson
May 28, 2024
The world's first human trial of a drug that can regenerate teeth will begin in a few months, less than a year on from news of its success in animals. This paves the way for the medicine to be commercially available as early as 2030.
The trial, which will take place at Kyoto University Hospital from September to August 2025, will treat 30 males aged 30-64 who are missing at least one molar. The intravenous treatment will be tested for its efficacy on human dentition, after it successfully grew new teeth in ferret and mouse models with no significant side effects.
A surprise result in a lab experiment has led to the discovery of an ancient biological stress pathway that can trigger cells to stop making what's needed to grow hair. Scientists believe this opens the door to developing a pre-emptive strike, protecting hair follicles from this process and preventing hair loss.
“We were testing a drug that targets metabolism in human hair follicles to influence how cells generate energy, which based on the work of others, we expected to stimulate stem cells," said senior author Talveen Purba, Research Fellow at The University of Manchester. “However, we found the opposite was true: Hair growth was instead blocked, as cells, including stem cells, quickly stopped dividing.”
The block was the result of the activation of an ancient biological pathway known as the Integrated Stress Response (ISR). This response gets switched on in cells that are under stress – which can be caused by a host of issues, such as a viral infection or misshapen proteins. When the ISR is triggered, cells can halt normal activity, pumping out fewer proteins to focus instead on dealing with the stressor. This can also result in cell death.
