Off the shelf stems........

[mrhodes40]

This company whose website is here

http://www.osiristx.com/

is creating an off the shelf mesenchymal stem cell product. The website is interesting and they have stage II/III trials going in Crohn's and graft vs host diseases with fast track status granted already.

Apparently they screen donors carefully and then harvest and grow the stem cells from these healthy people in the lab for donation to others.

from the website

Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. is a leading stem cell therapeutic company focused on developing and marketing products to treat medical conditions in the inflammatory, orthopedic, and cardiovascular areas. Osiris’ stem cell products have significant therapeutic potential because of their ability to regulate inflammation, promote tissue regeneration and prevent pathological scar formation.

The next revolution in medical care
Osiris Therapeutics is commercializing products from a readily available and non-controversial source – adult bone marrow. These stem cells have demonstrated the ability to repair different types of tissue and offer a very real opportunity to develop revolutionary new treatments for certain disease processes including inflammatory diseases, heart attacks and arthritis.

They have no MS trials planned at this time that I can tell from the website. It is interesting though to think there could be a commercially viable way to get these stem cells tested and if this stuff is available to crohn's patients I suppose an off label use is possible, if you are willing to pay yourself vs insurance paying for it.

Plus, it'd be really convenient to go to a clinic and get the cells right then and there rather than to have your own harvested to grow them in the lab. It'd possibly leave the way open for less expense.......nah! who'm I kidding! It'll be expensive!

But assuming successful trials, local hospitals that grow stem cells for cancer therapies MIGHT decide to offer the service of growing your own cells foryour own transplant in order to make some money for their labs; I can see an opportunity for say, Swedish Hospital to have a specialty clinic where they do this for people with autoimmune disease based on success seen /proven with this commercially available product I mention here.

And hey, I'd pay out of pocket for it off label. In my mind way better than going to costa rica or china for treatment and hoping the lab is on the up and up......
marie

[CureOrBust]

Obviously I was wrong, but I was on the impression that any stem cells from a different host would require some immune suppression to stop them being rejected?

But I see on their own web site, that they are using this treatment to actually treat patients from morrow transfusions that are being rejected by the host (ie GVHD).

The other thing I found a little unusual, is that the infusions are constantly referred to as a "drug" instead of a "treatment". I understand this is probably just a terminology adopted so it could be processed by the FDA easily; it just stood out a little when reading their papers.

[CureOrBust]

This article appears related to this company, and gives a little more info about Osiris methods. By their future market opposition..

For Osiris, however, the enrichment process relies on the adhesion of mesenchymal stem cells to plastic surfaces, meaning that other cells can get caught in the mix.

"When you use plastic adherence you don't grow more than one in a thousand mesenchymal precursor cells so it's a very impure population," Itescu says.

Its worth a read, just questionable on how much is a "who can piss further".

[CureOrBust]

forgot the url...
http://www.biotechnews.com.au/index.php ... 304;fpid;1

[mrhodes40]

Hi Cur-o,
That was interesting reading. Like you, I thought the idea that the company offered that their patented way of purifying the stem cells was somehow the ONLY way to do it a bit of hubris. I know other people are purifying stem cells to get the MSC's out, for goodness sake there has been a lot of research on MSC's; they all had to have some way of purifying the marrow to get to them! and as long as someone thinks of another way to do it without using the other company's exact method, well more power to them, and all of us too!

They anticipate a very lucrative market to sell to, That just goes to show you the studies really are that promising.

And now there will be 2 companies offering off the shelf MSC's for transplant. I feel more hopeful than I have in a long time!

I noticed they mentioned the immune priveleged status of the MSC's, they are not something that people react to apparently if from another person.

Mesenchymal stem cells are able to turn into nerves where hematopoietic stem cells are not. Bone marrow has only 1 in 100,000 of the cells mesenchymal stem cells. So if a person just got a bone marrow transplant they are less likely to have a response in the nervous system than someone who had MSC's.

I think this makes a big difference when you read about someone who went to China for stem cells, or who went to Mexico and got cord stems.
It matters a lot what kind of stem cells they got. Most of the time it seems I have read these places use cord blood stems or they get the bone marrow from the person themselves.

The other thing is I think people will need to have it repeated. MS, whatever it actually is, is an ongoing process not a done deal, so the treatment will need to be ongoing too. Thus a proceudre that is not tens of thousands will be very welcome. I wonder what they will be charging?

It seems that it is possible that MSC's given once every 6 months may mean some real fantastic improvements in time, especially if it was combined with aggressive physical therapy to use the damaged /nonfunctional limbs.

I saw a small study that showed that people who'd had strokes up to 6 years previously gained some new function with MSC's, the follow up was so short though that I imagine it could be even better with time.

Pretty exciting! I still do abx, but I need some healing too.

marie

[CureOrBust]

Like you, I thought the idea that the company offered that their patented way of purifying the stem cells was somehow the ONLY way to do it a bit of hubris. I know other people are purifying stem cells to get the MSC's out, for goodness sake there has been a lot of research on MSC's; they all had to have some way of purifying the marrow to get to them! and as long as someone thinks of another way to do it without using the other company's exact method

That was the weird thing about his rhetoric. It appeared that he was more on the idea that they patent the idea / end product instead of the process. I have heard of people patenting certain biological items. Maybe that's what they appear to have done. I don't know.

I had another read, and I guess this statement confirms it.

"We've now got patents that are not just around how to enrich cells but cells that are enriched,"

As for other people doing it, these guys are producing "Mesenchymal Precursor Cells" which is probably different to what others are producing (ie MSC's)? and Osiris are producing 1 in 1000 MPC's; by their reports. So not purified MPC's and therefore not infinging Mesoblasts patent. A guess.

They do appear to differentiate their end product as being MUCH more superior to ALL existing systems.

They anticipate a very lucrative market to sell to, That just goes to show you the studies really are that promising.

Thats another thing I like about them. I feel if they keep their business in line with the idea of making money, it will have more chance of lasting through to completion; albeit it slower than if they had human benefit in mind.

[mrhodes40]

Yeah it's a little hard to swallow that we are a 'market', not just people with desperate medical needs; but like you I find it promising, its the attraction of money that gets these things going!

The product may be, as they believe, vastly superior, it'll be great to see if that makes a big difference in outcome.

I spent time looking at you tubes of people who wen tfor stem cells in foreign places like CHina and read blogs I could find on it. It seems that many people have some improvements they recount especially right away, but there is some real hopefulness too, so there will naturally be some placebo effect right away. aThose I could find that posted after longer periods lif time say a year felt that they had improvements but not as much as they wanted and a number of people planned a second trip.

Its pretty expensive so they must feel its worth it.

But the very few that mentioned what kind of stem cells they got mentioned cord blood. I don't know but it seems likely that cord blood would have the same proportion of MSC as regular blood.

as this goes forward it will be interesting to see what comes of it...

[Cojack]

THis is good stuff....

Surgical device invented in Halifax, Nova Scotia, transplants neural stem cells 15 December 2008

Ivar Mendez

A surgical tool designed and built in Halifax is already being used to help Nova Scotians with neurological disorders and could become the gold standard around the world, says the head of the Brain Repair Centre.

Dr. Ivar Mendez showed off the instrument, called the Halifax Injector, at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre last week.

The device can be programmed by a touch screen to deliver precise quantities of stem cells to very specific areas deep inside the brain.

"This is the instrument that’s going to allow all the neurosurgeons in the future to repair the brain using cellular restoration," Dr. Mendez said. "When the time of stem cells comes and they’re ready for broader applications, the idea is that every operating room in the world will have the Halifax Injector."

The Brain Repair Centre has already pioneered a technique for transplanting stem cells into the brain to treat Parkinson’s disease. Video of a patient before and five years after a transplant shows a dramatic transformation: The man regained control of his hands and was able to walk normally.

Examinations of brain tissue in patients who have had the treatment also show the stem cells caused brain cells to resume producing dopamine and restore connections that were lost as a result of Parkinson’s, said Dr. Mendez.

But without an automated device like the injector it was difficult to precisely deliver the cells to the areas they needed to reach. A surgeon had to manually adjust the mechanisms that drove the needle into the brain, he said.

"We had to build an instrument that will allow us to do this, because there is nothing available," Dr. Mendez said. "To be able to put the right amount of cells in the right area without damaging the brain, and being safe, we created the Halifax Injector."

The device includes a frame that is fitted to the patient’s head and precisely holds the injection system and the micro-motors that drive it. The mechanism is connected to a computer with which a surgeon can program exactly how deeply the needle should enter the brain, how many deposits of stem cells to make, and where, and the volume of the deposits in micro-litres.

Each procedure is practised and mapped out beforehand in virtual reality.

Once the patient is prepared for surgery, the injection can proceed with one touch of a screen.

Dr. Mendez said accurate placement of the stem cells is of paramount importance, and giving surgeons this level of control is a major achievement.

The injector has been in development for at least three years with all of the work, including the machining of the components, done in Halifax.

There are plans to test the instrument at five different universities in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany and the United States.

Dr. Mendez said medical technology companies are interested in acquiring the rights to the patented device, and he’s already heard from surgeons wondering about its use in other areas of the body.

Dr. Murray Hong, part of the design team along with Ron Hill, Luis Bustamente and others, said the injector also has the potential to deliver drugs, genes or other compounds that need to be precisely targeted for treatment.

Source: The Chronical Herald.ca © 2008 The Halifax Herald Limited (15/12/08)

[mrhodes40]

Thanks Cojack!

It's great to know that supportive measures lke an instrument to deliver the stems is already in the wings waiting. Cool!

Obviously these guys do not think it will end up being effective to inject the stem cells into the CSF and let them migrate to the area in question, never mind the idea of getting them in an IV and letting them migrate to the brain on their own.

OTOH in mice they can inect MSC's into the side of the brain that did not have the stroke and they migrate aggressively to the stroke area, so maybe in the end it will not be necessary to put the cells in the brain itself. Studies will elucidate these details we can hope!

Thanks for posting this!
marie