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[kevin]

Here's some more news on the company called Tristem who previously announced the potential to use white blood cells as sources of stem cells for regenerating various tissues using 'retrodifferentiation'.

X-Ref Link: Blood Could Generate Body Repair Kit

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Link: http://www.ameinfo.c...iled/47395.html


Biological breakthrough in stem cell research backed by Gulf investors
An innovative new stem cell technology that could potentially benefit patients of many conditions - including sickle cell anaemia – has moved a step closer to becoming a worldwide standard, thanks to the help of investors from the Arab world.

With their continued support the company says its stem cell technology is poised to transform the lives of millions currently suffering from debilitating diseases.

The successful completion in India of human proof in principle trials of the innovative process, which could spell relief for those afflicted with anaemia, diabetes and other ailments was announced this week by TriStem, a company founded in 1999 by Saudi medical specialist Dr. Ilham Abuljadayel and her husband, investment banker, Mr. Ghazi Dhoot.

The treatment, based on more than a decade of research, challenges the fundamental basics of cellular biology. It has enormous potential within the Arab world, home of a number of TriStem's investors and ironically a region with an unusually high incidence of anaemia and diabetes.

Although the path from discovery to distribution of new medical technology is a long and expensive one, the success of Dr. Abuljadayel's recent proof of principle trials in India have been a crucial part of the building blocks needed to prove the process is safe and effective.

'We recently undertook pre clinical trials to give us the proof of performance necessary in order us to raise funds on our third round of financing. This will commence in October of this year,' announced Mr. Ghazi Dhoot. 'We aim to raise US$30 million through private placement with select high net-worth investors to help us take the work to the next level.'

The pioneering technique, which was discovered by Dr. Abuljadayel in 1990 uses blood from the patient, which she converts back to its original, pre specialised state – known as a stem cell. The technique, retro-differentiation, works with the patient's white-blood cells creating a supply of stem cells, which can be grown into any number of different cell types to treat many complex and previously untreatable conditions. Because the patient becomes his own donor, there is no risk of rejection by the immune system. This process has been patented worldwide since 1994.

'Stem cell research is nothing new,' explains Dr. Abuljadayel. 'Scientists worldwide have been exploring all aspects of these 'blank slate' cells for years. The reason for the wide spread interest in them is that they are capable of growing into any type of adult cell.'

'However, the topic of stem cell research creates controversy throughout the world due to the source of the cells – aborted fetuses or placental tissue. But this controversy may end soon with this new technology,' she continued. TriStem's ability to ultimately provide patients with an endless supply of personalized stem cells is a veritable gold mine in biological terms.

'This research has been met with more skepticism than intrigue. Thankfully, it has finally been recognized on an international level and as investors we are extremely pleased that it has begun the trek up the ladder of required approvals,' said Ihab G. El-Hashani, a Saudi businessman and one of TriStem's investors.

Using the TriStem-grown stem cells, four patients in India who suffered from previously incurable aplastic anaemia have had their condition arrested. Aplastic anaemia is a particularly unpleasant form of the disease wherein the patient's bone marrow stops making enough red blood cells, immune cells and platelets for the patient's needs. Sufferers of this disease usually require multiple blood transfusions a month just to be able to survive.

One of Dr. Abuljadayel's patients required five transfusions a month to stay alive, and even then he was bed-ridden and his body was barely able to function. Just three months after being treated with his own TriStem-treated stem cells he was up and moving about, meeting with friends and living a seemingly normal life.

This treatment has been met with much criticism and disbelief, mainly due to the speed of the treatment, just a few hours of the cells being treated and then less than a month for recovery. Most scientists who have been in this field for some years have grown accustomed to the lengthy process of harvesting and then encouraging the stem cells to grow into the proper cell types, not to mention the life-long process of treating patients even after successful operations.

By using an antibody, CR3/43, which is manufactured by a Danish firm DakoCytomation, Dr. Abuljadayel is able to coax the adult white blood cells to retro-differentiate back to their stem cell state. From there, using an array of different growth factors, she is able to create almost any type of cell the patient may need.[I highly doubt the accuracy of the word 'any' but... -KP]

Thus far she has been able to consistently re-grow bone marrow and stimulate the growth of extremely specialized heart cells.

In a recent interview conducted by 'New Scientist' (9 October 2004 p39), Dr. Richard Boyd, an independent stem cell researcher from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, commented on Dr. Abuljadyel's treatment, which he witnessed being performed on the patients in India. If her technique is proved to work, it could be 'Nobel prizewinning stuff', said Boyd. 'They are genuine people,' he explained further. '…After six days, this guy (one of the patients) had platelets and neutrophils which he never had before. In all four patients, they've had an effect.'

'Much more research is required before this research is accepted within the scientific community,' said Dr. Abuljadayel. 'Clinical testing and placebo experimentation will especially be needed before many scientists decide the work we are doing is worth a second look.'

The value of Dr. Abuljadayel's work is not lost on anyone though, critic or advocate, because of the vast range of illnesses and diseases which have the potential to be cured by her treatments.

[kevin]

Link: http://news.independ...sp?story=577567

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Stem cell research: No 'voodoo magic'. But maybe a miracle
The biotech industry may not have woken up to it yet, but a Saudi doctor's accidental discovery could herald a new future for one of medical science's most controversial breakthroughs. Maggie Lee reports
31 October 2004

Stem cell research has become a much talked of issue in the US election. Coming out against President George Bush's policy on the issue have been people such as the Hollywood actor Michael J Fox, a Parkinson's disease sufferer, and the widow of the paralysed Superman star Christopher Reeve.

But now a London-based biotech company says it can take an adult human cell from a patient and use it to create a stem cell. If ongoing medical trials being conducted in India to substantiate these claims prove successful, the whole issue will be turned on its head.

TriStem's discovery challenges the current scientific orthodoxy that it is not possible to return a mature cell to its former evolutionary state as a stem cell. If fully validated, it will have profound implications for the treatment of patients suffering from a wide range of diseases that mainstream stem cell researchers are currently tackling. These include leukae-mia, heart disease, Type 1 diabetes and spinal cord injury.

Stem cells are therapeutically valuable because of their ability to replicate indefinitely and become a production line for the replacement of damaged specialised cells. But research in this field is controversial. As stem cells have until now generally been harvested from embryos or foetal sources, research often raises complex ethical issues. It has also polarised political opinion, not least on the campaign trail leading up to this week's presidential election.

The application of TriStem's technology neatly side-steps these difficulties. It may privide a route to creating stem cells that is an alternative to harvesting cells from embryos or foetuses, so making research less expensive, risky and controversial.

With roots in Britain, Dublin and Saudi Arabia, TriStem was founded in the late 1990s by Ilham Abuljadayel, a Saudi Arabian doctor, and her UK-resident husband, Ghazi Dhoot. Their aim is to exploit patents they registered earlier in the Nineties, following Dr Abuljadayel's ground-breaking, but sceptically reported, discovery about the creation of stem cells.

Her breakthrough came by accident when, while working as a consultant immunologist in Jeddah, she forgot to add an ingredient to a mixture she was using to kill leukaemia cells. Instead of dying, the cells were transformed into stem cells.

"It was such a rare occurrence, it was as if ET had landed," Dr Abuljadayel says. She successively repeated the process, which she later named "retrodifferentiation", to verify the results, and patented it at the suggestion of her husband.

"It was as if the cells had acted like a VCR and wound themselves back to the beginning," she continues. "It was extraordinary. I realised that if mature cells can be flexible to become stem cells, then a patient's own cells could be treated to be used to treat disease."

Money was then needed to fund research and support clinical trials. Philosophical about the lack of venture funding, particularly after the downturn in world stock markets in 2001, her husband used his well-honed skills as a former investment banker working in American and Arab institutions to raise private equity. He and his wife have also invested in the business themselves.

Initially, TriStem had envisaged carrying out clinical trials in the UK. However, after fruitful discussions with the Indian Council of Medical Research, the work went ahead instead in Mumbai. Trials were conducted with patients suffering from aplastic anaemia, a life-threatening condition more common in developing countries than in the West. Sufferers' bone marrow is damaged, causing inadequate production of normal blood cells and platelets; without regular blood transfusions, aplastic anaemia is fatal.

Under trial conditions TriStem separated the patients' immune cells and treated them with the antibody for about two and a half hours. The patient's treated cells were then reinjected.

Dr Abuljadayel was amazed by the results. "When the patients' bone marrow was analysed you could see evidence of regeneration. Some of these people were taking 12 units of blood transfusions every month. Now some of them are transfusion independent. They haven't had any transfusions since the stem cells created from their own cells were injected," she says.

Aware of the scepticism surrounding her research (one critic accused TriStem of performing voodoo magic), Dr Abuljadayel was happy to be accompanied in Mumbai by independent expert witnesses and a television production company.

Aside from having the obvious benefits for patients who in some cases had little hope of living much longer, the cost savings Dr Abuljadayel's work has opened up potentially huge new revenue opportunities in the treatment of diseases that rely heavily on blood products. TriStem has, over the past two years, been developing a prototype machine for clinical use that will convert a patient's adult cells into stem cells for specific therapeutic treatments. The manufacturing and distribution of this device will be outsourced, with TriStem retaining ownership of the software that both drives and audits the retrodifferentiation process. Commercially, this could deliver a huge bonanza for investors.

Dr Tim McCaffrey, a stem cell expert at the George Washington University in Washington DC, can vouch for TriStem's research. A self-confessed "conservative person - not prone to run with wild hares", he jointly published research with Dr Abuljadayel this year. The hypothesis that a cell can reverse its differentiation programme is not a new one, he says, but there have been problems in proving this thesis. "You need to see it to believe it, and no one has been able to create and demonstrate these conditions before."

He finds scientific scepticism ironic, given the lack of evidence supporting claims that cells cannot reverse their nature. "Just because someone hasn't done it, doesn't mean it can't be done." For Dr McCaffrey, the scepticism surrounding the discovery is reminiscent of the problems encountered by Dr Stanley Prusiner, winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize for medicine, in getting his once-heretical prion theory accepted. (Prusiner discovered that proteins he named prions can infect human beings and are implicated in dementia-related conditions such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.)

Mr Dhoot is aware of another company using adult cells in the same manner for trials on humans. But he believes Tri-Stem remains unique. Not only is it the one company that possesses the retrodifferentiation technology, it has also conducted clinical trials on a stand-alone basis (ie, independent of any other treatment or therapy).

Over the next two years, Mr Dhoot envisages that the company will probably focus on developing treatments for leukae- mia, spinal cord injuries, Type 1 diabetes and heart disease.

He remains pragmatic about the academic world's relative silence and is confident he can raise further private equity, being in no hurry to take the company public. He is equally clear that, at some point, a portion of either the company's future earnings or shareholding will be used for charitable purposes.

When pressed about his worst moments, Mr Dhoot says that, as with any start-up or developing enterprise, these have been too numerous to list. However, he and his wife are unequivocal in recalling their proudest moment. It occurred when one of the patients in the Mumbai trial gave Dr Abuljadayel a small present. Turning to her husband, Dr Abuljadayel said: "This is my Nobel Prize."

[Alexandar Gomes]

Stem Cell Conclave 2011 - When There is Hope, There will Be Life too

Here there is a small example of stem cell therapy which has given a new hope to survive.

Morgan Van Breda, a 32-year old lady has set an example for all those people who are disable and believe that this is the end of life. The beautiful, strong, and brave lady is paralyzed waist-down and is cycling through India to raise funds and awareness about spinal cord injuries.

Morgan is suffering from T-12 injury since she was 24. According to information, a soccer post collapsed on her back, shattering her T 11/12 vertebrae. Doctors believe that she won’t be able to walk entire life but Morgan doesn’t think the same and lives with dignity.

She feels that she is fine and is a professional cyclist. Currently, she is on India Tour along with 30 other cyclists. Her all colleagues are able to walk, and she is the only one paraplegic in the group, but despite of these entire she is so much optimistic towards life.

She will tour to India and visit Buddhist temples on a hand cycle, from Agra to Kanyakumari, approx 39, 00 kms. The motive of seven-day journey is to raise awareness about spinal cord injuries and funds for her stem cell treatment.

She expresses her view, “India is a beautiful country. It is giving me the ultimate confidence and it’s like if I can do this then I can accomplish anything in life. When I first drove to Mumbai, I read a billboard that said everything is Possible as even ‘Impossible spells ‘I am Possible’”.

She is so much enthusiast and confident about achieving her goal. Sticking to mandate "Heal to be Healed" coupled with Canadian charity, ‘The Dirty Wall Project’, she is providing the wings of freedom to the disabled in slum areas by distributing cycles to them.

The lady will be spending the next two month in Delhi, regarding her stem cell treatment. She says confidently, “I believe I will walk again 100 per cent. I have no doubts about it”. She is the live example of the phrase that, when there is hope, there is life. We wish her all the very best for her treatment.

http://www.stemcellc...-india-2011.php