Clinical Research

A new biomaterial that facilitates generating bone tissue - artificial bones, in their words - from umbilical cord stem cells has gotten a patent for researchers in Granada, Spain. The material is an activated carbon cloth support for cells that differentiate, giving rise to a product that can promote bone growth. They received a patent though the method has not yet been applied using in vivo models but it could help manufacture medicines for the repair of bone or osteochondrial, tumour or traumatic lesions and to replace lost cartilage in limbs. Now that they have obtained artificial bones…

At some point it would be ideal for animal-to-human transplants of insulin-producing cells for people with type 1 diabetes, such as from pigs, but first there must be baby steps. Or in this case, mouse steps. Scientists have successfully transplanted islets, the cells that produce insulin, from a rat to a mouse. Using their new method of xenotransplantation, the islets survived without immunosuppressive drugs. For people with hard-to-control type 1 diabetes, a transplant of insulin-producing islets from a deceased donor is one important way to control their chronic disease, in which their…

An international team that developed a new gene therapy approach to treatment of Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome, a fatal inherited form of immunodeficiency has reported results. Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome is a disorder that weakens the body's immune system. It is caused by a mutation in a gene that encodes the protein WASP. The most often used therapy is a bone marrow or stem cell transplant from a matching donor, often a sibling or relative. It can be curative for some patients, mostly those who have a strongly matching donor. An alternative is to obtain blood stem cells from patient, and, in the…

Veloxis Pharmaceuticals announced that LCP-Tacro successfully demonstrated non-inferiority compared to tacrolimus (Prograf®; Astellas Pharma) in its Phase III clinical trial, Study 3002. The Phase III randomized, double-blind and double-dummy study in 543 de novo kidney transplant recipients, with Prograf as the comparator, met its primary efficacy and primary safety endpoints. The study was conducted under a Special Protocol Agreement with the FDA and the results are considered pivotal for the planned U.S. regulatory filing expected to occur in the second half of 2013. "The results…

Resverlogix Corp. has announced that its Phase 2b ASSURE clinical trial evaluating RVX-208 in high-risk cardiovascular patients with low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) did not meet its primary endpoint of a -0.6% change in percent atheroma volume as determined by intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). The RVX-208 treated group had -0.4% plaque regression (p= 0.08). RVX-208 is Resverlogix's first-in-class orally active BET bromodomains inhibitor. RVX-208 functions by removing atherosclerotic plaque via reverse cholesterol transport (RCT), the natural process through which atherosclerotic plaque is…

Long-term cigarette smoking impacts morbidity and mortality, no question about that, but there may be a good reason to stop smoking in the weeks before surgery even if you don't intend to quit overall.  In a review article, researchers from the University of California San Francisco and Yale University examined neurosurgical literature to characterize the impact of active smoking on neurosurgical outcomes. They found strong evidence for the association between smoking and perioperative complications throughout the surgical literature.  A small number of published reports…

When a liver from a deceased adult or adolescent donor is split into two separate portions for transplantation, with the smaller portion going to a young child and the larger to an adult, the child will benefit as much if they had received a whole organ from a donor close to their size, according to a paper in Liver Transplantation.       The process of splitting a liver for transplant and allocating the halves to two different recipients began in the mid 1990s and has become more widespread over time. However, adoption of this technique has met some resistance due to early…

As men get older they are more likely to suffer from andropausal syndrome (AS), also known as 'menopause' and by other complicated terms 'androgen deficiency in the aging male' or' late-onset hypogonadism'. Men with andropausal syndrome have decreased levels of anabolic hormones, including testosterone, and it has been suggested that these hormone deficiencies are what cause the clinical symptoms. The symptoms of   andropausal syndrome, according to the Aging Male Symptom Rating Scale, can be divided into three categories: sexual (erectile dysfunction, problems with libido,…

Nearly 10,000 participants are in Istanbul at  the congress of the ERA-EDTA (European Renal Association - European Dialysis and Transplant Association) to share their knowledge and discuss the latest research findings. New pioneering studies have been presented:  - Gupta, A et al. "SOLUBLE FERRIC PYROPHOSPHATE (SFP) ADMINISTERED VIA HEMODIALYSATE REDUCES ESA USE"  By SFP-iron administration, the ESA dose could be reduced by 35% while maintaining stable Hb levels. There were no SFP-related adverse effects and no cases of iron overload.  - Van Eps, C. "THE EFFECTS OF…

If you read THE WIRED WORLD IN 2013 Annual Trend Report you may have seen my article predicting we would make a big advancement on the road to growing one of the Big 5 organs from a person's own stem cells this year.  That will mean no more driver's license donor permission, no waiting lists and no immunosuppressive drugs. The reason for that optimism was because since 2008 they have already been able to grow and transplant relatively 'uniform-shaped' organs like a trachea. As time goes on, those operations will migrate from world-class facilities to regional hospitals, like regular…