There are many potential emerging brain cell therapies. I’m particularly excited now about the potential of stem cells for Parkinson’s based on three recent early trial reports. Now one of those trials has given more details.
Immunosuppression & brain cell therapies
Control of immune response in an iPSC-based allogeneic cell therapy clinical trial for Parkinson’s disease, Cell Stem Cell. Note that I’m not sure why the link to this paper no longer works over at Cell.com. I’ll update it if it starts working again.
This is another report from the Japanese allogeneic trial for Parkinson’s. Both it and two other trials have shown some promise. Earlier I wrote about the hope from the three recent stem cells for Parkinson’s trial reports. The new study gives more information on the immune responses to the allogeneic therapy. It’s interesting that there isn’t more in the way of immune system attack on the graft.
A collaboration I did with Veronica Martinez-Cerdeno years ago found that transplantation of undifferentiated hIPSCs into the immunocompetent mouse brain led to apparently stable engraftment with major rejection. The brain may be a unique environment where less immunosuppression is needed.
More recommended reads
- Pfizer’s CEO defends Covid vaccines, suggests Trump may deserve a Nobel Peace Prize, STAT News. This suggestion about the Nobel Prize is just nuts. Talk about sucking up.
- Human iPSCs-derived mesenchymal stem cells promote skin regeneration and burn wound healing, npj Regenerative Medicine.
- Supercharged NK cells: a unique population of NK cells capable of differentiating stem cells and lysis of MHC class I high differentiated tumors, Cell Death & Diff.
- Katherine Ryan reveals she harvested her stem cells from her placenta, Yahoo. This article is a mess on so many levels. It seems what was actually most likely harvested was umbilical cord blood. Ryan was quoted, “”I mean, I do it to inject them into my face, but it could also save a baby’s life, if that’s important to you.” There’s no evidence to support such procedures with these cells.
- Clonal Hematopoiesis—Fuel to Inflame the Heart, JAMA Cardiology. Clonal hematopoiesis is emerging as an important element in several diseases including most prominently blood cancers. The new paper links it to heart disease.
- Targeting ECM-producing cells with CAR-T therapy alleviates fibrosis in chronic kidney disease, Cell Stem Cell. This reminds me of the idea of targeting senescent cells either with CAR-T cells or senolytics. We don’t want to nuke so many ECM-producing cells or senescent cells in a haphazard way.