Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells Technologies

A new drug combination tested in mice may target the cells responsible for driving some pancreatic tumors. The combination of gemcitabine and the experimental drug tigatuzumab eliminated populations of cancer stem cellsand reduced tumor growth in a mouse model of pancreatic cancer, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center reported at the AACR annual meeting.

Global warming will have a variety of effects on our planet, yet it may also directly impact our human biology, research suggests.

Researchers have developed what appears to be a simple, minimally invasive, effective way to treat osteoarthritis (OA) in dogs that may prove to be of considerable importance in treating humans, too. The study detailing this new approach appears in the latest issue of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine (SCTM).

An autologous mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapy for the treatment of spinal cord injury, developed by NIPRO Corporation (Osaka, Japan), has been conditionally approved for clinical treatment following a 13-patient trial. Stemirac, produced from bone marrow-derived MSCs, is believed to reduce inflammation and protect existing neurons, and should be administered within 40 days of injury.

Researchers say that new mini-placentas—a cellular model of the early stages of the placenta—could provide a window into early pregnancy and help transform our understanding of reproductive disorders. Details of this new research are published today in the journal Nature.

A study headed by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and published in the journal Nature Cell Biology examined whether the opening of chromatin (a complex formed by DNA bound to proteins) is the factor that determines the accumulation of more or fewer mutations in given regions.

The first U.S. patient to participate in a global study of a stem cell therapy injected directly into the brain to treat stroke disability was enrolled in the clinical trial this week at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) - the only CAR-T cell therapy available for NHS patients in England and Wales for two distinct blood cancers - will be available on the NHS in England and Wales to eligible adults who did not respond to two or more previous treatments with DLBCL, with funding from the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF).

Researchers at Kanazawa University report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that a particular signaling pathway in breast cancer tumors causes cancer cells to divide symmetrically, expanding the tumor. Inhibiting the pathway with drugs could become a strategy for eliminating the cancer cells.

The accumulation of amyloid beta (Aβ) plaques and tangles of a protein called tau in the brain are hallmarks of Alzheimers disease (AD). Much effort has focused on the former, with many attempts made to prevent, slow or even reverse the presence of Aβ, and thus ameliorate the development of AD. To date, results have been mixed.