Researchers find method to develop blood stem cells used to treat patients with cancer -
A team of scientists from the University of Colorado School of Medicine reported breakthrough discovery of a process of increasing the production of stem cells used to treat cancer patients. These results could have implications that go beyond cancer, including treatments for innate immune and metabolic conditions, and autoimmune diseases.
In an article published on 29 August PLOS ONE , researchers from Charles C. Gates Center regenerative medicine and stem cell biology and taiga Biotechnologies, Inc. said they have uncovered key molecular code that appears to regulate the ability of blood stem cells to reproduce and maintain their stem-like characteristics.
The team developed the protein products that can be directly administered to blood stem cells to encourage them to multiply without permanent genetic changes.
"The use of stem cells to treat cancer patients facing bone marrow transplant has been a common practice for four decades," said Yosef Refaeli, Ph.D., professor associate of Dermatology and a major scientific study. "The biggest challenge, however, was to find an adequate supply of stem cells that help patients fight infection after the procedure."
Gates Stem Cell Center director Dennis Roop, Ph.D., recognized the importance of the work team.
"Researchers have long tried to increase the number of blood stem cells in a laboratory," said Roop. "Most of these approaches have been limited by the nature of the resulting cells or insufficient of cells produced. "
the technology described in PLOS ONE Article worked with stem cells from blood obtained from cord blood, adult bone marrow or adult peripheral blood .
"the ability to multiply blood stem cells from a source in a dish will be critical to the adoption of this new technology in clinical," said Brian Turner, Ph.D., MHS, scientific director of Taiga Biotechnologies. Dr Turner is also one of the lead authors of the paper.
the goal now is to move laboratory technology in clinical trials. Taiga Biotechnologies is putting first in human clinical trials with stem blood cell expansion approaches described in the article. Clinical applications of expanded human blood stem cells varies conditions of primary immunodeficiencies, such as SCID and sickle cell anemia, metabolic diseases such as Hurler syndrome and Gaucher. Autoimmune diseases that may be affected include severe multiple sclerosis and lupus. And the types of cancer that could be treated as a result of this research include leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other solid tumor types.
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