April 2018 - Stem Cell Therapy Treatments

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April 23, 2018

Stem Cells: Treating Heart Disease With Umbilical Cord Blood

April 23, 2018 2

Treating Heart Disease With Umbilical Cord Blood

So far, we have enough evidence that the stem cells derived from the umbilical cord blood have the potential to do the magic. The magic is nothing, but in the form of regenerative medicines and therapies, that could help us combat a range of chronic diseases. Now, the researchers at the American Heart Association has once again brought us good news for the patients with cardiovascular issues. The insight of their research has been published in the medical journal Circulation Research.


Until now, we have to use invasive procedures to cure the patients with heart failure complications. But, the latest findings focus to aid in the development of noninvasive therapies using the umbilical cord. By using the therapy, it will be possible to make improvements in the heart muscles and make changes to the quality of the life.

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The  Concern Over The Disorder
heart failure stem cells

When the heart muscle cannot have the ability to pump blood effectively, it is known as heart failure. Nearly 37 million people globally are suffering from this heart disease. We have too many medical advances, still, we cannot treat people with heart complications. And a huge number of patients die every year despite being diagnosed with heart failure symptoms. So, the finding of the study is useful for us to get rid of the disorder.

The Elaborate Finding Of The Research

The trial showed a huge potential in favor of the patients taking part in the clinical trials. As many as 30 patients with lower to moderate level of heart failure complications participate. They aged between 18 to 75. Before these patients could receive intravenous infusions of umbilical cord-derived stem cells, they all had minimal drug therapy. The donors for the trials had full-term developed placentas from which the umbilical cord has been derived. Some of the patients received placebo also to determine the efficacy of the stem cells.
stem cell heart transplant

Consequences Of The Stem Cell Therapy As Compared To The Placebo

  • The patients had an improved life with a flexible capacity to pump blood to the heart and back to the whole body.
  • The quality of life has been
  • There was no side-effect, which is a quite common post any stem cell transplants. This apart, no sign of alloantibodies, or what we know by immune complexes was not detected so far.
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Umbilical cord stem cells did not show any potential though, the current studies are quite promising. We could no longer worry about the adverse effects of the cardiovascular complications, from now onwards. As is with intravenous umbilical cord stem cells, they are easily available, and accessible. Therefore, they raise more positive hopes for us. They are free of all incumbrances as we generally find in case with embryonic stem cells. Since they do not cause any immune complexes, they are a great scientific tool for the scientists for medical advances.

Why Choosing Umbilical Cord In Place Of Drug Therapy?

Such discovery is a way of living life better for many patients with cardiovascular symptoms. Earlier we have many instances which showcase that drug-based therapy is ineffective in case of heart diseases. They are not able to offer maximum benefit to alleviate the heart failure conditions. And that’s being one of the leading causes of patients’ concer, they opt for different invasive therapies. There are heart transplantations and ventricular mechanical assist device therapies, which often prove to be quite pricey for the patients.  

“The finding of the study is quite promising for us, as they could pave the way to develop non-invasive and promising new therapy for the patients with cardiovascular complications,” said the study correspondent author Fernando Figueroa.

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April 20, 2018

Stem Cell Summit:Ways To Improve Anti-CD19 CAR-T Cell Performances

April 20, 2018 0

Why Should We Look Beyond Anti-CD 19 CAR-T Cells? 

In the recent stem cell summit, we had so many strategies to improve the quality of stem cell transplants and make them successful. One of such strategies undertaken in the January Summit, held in Florida raises a concern over the performance of CD19 and finds pathways to improve its efficacy to target solid tumors.


The success of clinical studies on the efficacy of modified T cells garnered our hopes in the development of novel therapeutic treatments. We have witnessed that modification of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) have been able to defy the cytotoxicity of tumors in many clinical studies. Engineered CD19 CAR-T cells being active in inducing anti-inflammatory immunity against B-cells malignancies, these cells are participating in the development of cancer adoptive immunotherapy.
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However, the hurdle in its way seems to be its ineffectiveness to combat solid tumors. We can find several factors that work against various approaches of these modified T-cells. The first one being the neoplasm activity of the microenvironment, which does not allow CAR-T cells to survive and reach the tumor surface. The host’s defensive mechanism becomes ineffective due to the useless anergic status developing from the ambiguous interactive communication amongst tumor components, stromal and immune cells.


Amidst these confusions, what pathways we should take to improve the performance of CD19 CAR-T cells? Or Should we look beyond some other immunotherapy to treat solid tumors?
stem cell research car-t cells

Efficacy Of CD19 CAR-T Cells

Anti-tumor efficacy of anti CD19 CAR-T cells has been expressed in children and adults through many clinical studies. T-cells can express its anti-immunotherapy properties against a series of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and other B-cell malignancies. We have two anti-cancer immunotherapies infused with anti-CD19 CAR-T cells named YESCARTA and KYMRIAH. Both these drugs are useful in suppressing B-cell expressions.


While this antigen CD19 CAR-T cell is capable of treating many B-cell malignancies, it is ineffective to even target solid tumor cells. Why so?

Factors Behind CD19 CAR-T Cells Being Inefficient In Solid Tumor Control

Its poor efficacy against malignant epithelial cells is due to the lack of capacity to target specific antigens in the microenvironment. Its inability to target active splice variant of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), causes the growth of solid tumors and creates a hostile nature for its survival.

Ways To Improve Antigen Anti-CD19 CAR-T Cell Performances

While this immunotherapy fails to provide a positive result for the patients with solid tumors, other antigens like anti GD-2 CAR-T cells have shown some promises to treat different malignant conditions in clinical trials. Therefore, we can demand more clinical trials which can bring forth the introduction of anti-cancer immunotherapy using antigens.
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By using IL-2 support and increasing the number of cells for the ACT in melanoma, we can achieve a positive result for patients with solid tumors. Simultaneously, the physical barriers created by epithelial and mesenchymal cells need to be restricted to prevent ill effects of the cytotoxic functions of the solid tumors. And to effectively increase its efficacy against solid tumors, its persistence, eruption in the environment and tumor homing should be increased.

At the same time, if this antigen underperforms despite some changes, we should look beyond this. A recent study showed that BCMA targeted CAR-T cells can effectively perform on tumor-specific cells to stop further spread of the diseases. Many clinical trials have shown promises that this antigen could provide adequate relief from multiple myeloma.

So, we can rest assured that clinical studies and research could bring us effective CAR-T cells based immunotherapy in order to combat multiple malignancies and myeloma in future.

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April 12, 2018

Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy to Increase the Survival Rate in HLHS

April 12, 2018 0

Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy to Increase the Survival Rate in HLHS

Mesenchymal stem cell therapy seems an appropriate answer to the severities of HLHS disease. The congenital heart defects hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) does not allow babies to survive more than an average of five years after the birth. For the heart surgeons, it is one of the most challenging and complex forms of heart disorder to treat using surgeries and heart transplant.

Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome

The disorder leaves us with an incomplete developed left ventricle in the heart, which takes a key role in pumping blood to the lungs. As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year 960 babies are exposed to this disorder, and if left untreated the outcome is always fatal.
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In normal, when we have healthy hearts, the right ventricle does not have to work hard to supply deoxygenated blood to the lungs from the body. The left ventricle, on the other hand, uses a greater level of strength to pump resupplied blood back to the body. However, with HLHS, the right side of the heart has to take the double workloads, as well as maintaining the blood circulation to both lungs and body. So, when the stress is too much for the right side of the heart, the heart fails to work and causes the baby to die.

Type of Treatments

HLHS requires three types of surgeries in order to be treated completely- the first one performed at the birth,  the second one at 4 months of age and the final one at the age of 2 or 4. However, it does not always promise to offer a curative treatment as patients with this disorder are more likely to die even after a heart transplant.
stem cell transplant for babies

Since open heart surgeries or transplant are not providing promising results, the only curative treatment option appears to be the stem cell therapy


We have more instances that support the use of stem cell therapy in the treatment of HLHS in babies. In a more recent incident, surgeons in Maryland injected the cells derived from bone marrow of the donor into the heart of baby Autumn Brown with HLHS. The four-month baby Autumn is now a part of the stem cell study with 10 babies at the  University of Maryland Medical Center. Both Wayne Brown and LeeAnn Janes, Autumn’s parents are hopeful for a better outcome of the clinical trial for their baby. As Autumn ’s mother wants nothing more than her healthy life, she expects that she will lead a normal life with implanted stem cells in her heart. More instances show that she is improving and will meet her relatives soon. Janes said, “I could see the stem cells as creating a super heart.”
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The Finding of Their Study

The research carried out by Dr. Kaushal had an objective of boosting or regenerating the right ventricle in patients with HLHS so that their right heart could pump blood strongly. Their research also showed that babies with implanted mesenchymal stem cells are doing well.
hlhs stem cell transplant babies

MSCs have allogenic properties, so they can easily expand in the culture, and are a perfect source for the trail. MSCs prove to be effective in restoring heart functions in a clinical trial, which focuses the same features for HLHS too. These cells are capable of forming heart muscles and restraining the heart muscle from dying.


The finding of the study suggested that the same techniques will work for patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome too.

We have earlier seen that stem cells provide a great potential to regenerate heart muscles. So it is believed that the result of the study will work better in case of pediatric patients too. That’s because hearts in younger individuals have better opportunity to grow as opposed to the older patients since the body is still in the development phase.

So, we can hope this novel therapy will one day improve the health of little patients who have a vulnerability to mortality.

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