Hmmmmm:
Wednesday September 22, 8:05 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Fetal Pig Cells Implanted in Stroke Patient
BOSTON--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 22, 1999--Diacrin scientists along with doctors at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have become the first in the world to implant fetal pig brain cells into the brain of a stroke patient. The collaborators hope that the fetal pig brain cells will replace the cells that have died as a result of the stroke.
''We are excited about the possibilities that this therapy will provide for stroke patients who otherwise would expect very little recovery. Through this trial we hope to begin to understand how patients would most benefit from cell therapy and what the risks might be,'' says Louis Caplan, MD, BI-Deaconess neurologist and neurology professor at Harvard Medical School.
Despite extensive rehabilitation efforts since her stroke four years ago, the patient, 39, has not been able to regain enough use of her left hand to return to her job as a dental hygienist in Saratoga Springs, New York. This was the first patient treated as part of a Phase 1 clinical trial that is being done by Diacrin in collaboration with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
The cells used in this trial are pretreated such that patients do not need to take immunosuppressive medicine to prevent the patient's immune system from rejecting the cells. This immunological pretreatment is based on a patented technology exclusively licensed to Diacrin by Massachusetts General Hospital.
''It's not a cure yet,'' says BI-Deaconess neurosurgeon-in-chief Julian Wu, MD, who performed the xenograft. ''But, it's exciting to consider that this may be a beginning to treating strokes in the near-future.''
''Considering the encouraging clinical results we have seen using cell transplantation to treat Parkinson's disease patients and focal epilepsy patients, and knowing the prevalence of stroke in our society, we are very excited to begin this trial,'' said Thomas H. Fraser, PhD, Diacrin president and CEO.
Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States, ranking behind coronary artery disease and cancer. It is also the leading cause of long-term disability in the U.S. Diacrin is targeting patients who have had ischemic stroke. Ischemic stroke is caused by lack of blood flow to a region of the brain, causing neuronal cell death. Initially the trial will focus on transplanting cells into areas of cell death principally in the striatal region of the brain. The striatum includes deep brain structures. Transplantation of porcine fetal neural cells may repair the damaged neuronal circuitry caused by the stroke. Animal studies have demonstrated the feasibility of repairing and restoring function to the stroke damaged brain.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a major teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and a founding member of CareGroup, an integrated system of quality healthcare serving the individual, family, and community. Diacrin is developing transplantable cells for the treatment of human diseases which are characterized by cell dysfunction or cell death and for which current therapies are either inadequate or nonexistent. Products under development for the treatment of neurological disorders include:
NeuroCell(TM)-PD for Parkinson's disease and NeuroCell(TM)-HD for Huntington's disease, both of which are being developed in a joint venture with Genzyme Corporation, NeuroCell(TM)-FE for focal epilepsy, porcine neural cells for stroke and intractable pain and spinal cord cells for spinal cord injury. Also under development are hepatocytes for acute liver failure and for cirrhosis, myoblasts for cardiac disease and retinal epithelial cells for macular degeneration.
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