Search Results for: placebo

Placebo effect & “the fade” after stem cell clinic shots

placebo-effect-expectations-from-hype, science hype

Sometimes when I talk about possible placebo effects with fans of stem cell clinics I feel like placebo becomes akin to a bad word in the discussion. However, any kind of medical procedure can cause placebo effects in people. We’re all susceptible to it. I believe that many perceived positive outcomes at stem cell clinics […]

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Weekly reads: Humacyte, retinal stem cells, stem cell therapy for knees & hearts

Laura Niklason, Humacyte

I want to discuss a recent development with Humacyte and the FDA, but first, please check out a new video below that is a discussion between student Parmin Sedigh and me on the idea of stem cells for heart disease. Parmin has also written for The Niche and has her own site too. I am impressed

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RFK Jr. & claimed regenerative peptides like BPC-157

Bpc-157, Body Protection Compound 157

The marketing of what are loosely referred to as “regenerative peptides” including BPC-157 makes many health claims. Yet I can’t see that any have been conclusively proven to work in people. Even so, RFK Jr. claimed that the FDA was suppressing useful peptides. He mentioned this along with supposed suppression of “stem cells”. So maybe

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Weekly reads: stem cell therapy for vision loss, cancer self-experimentation, Slovenia, 14-day rule

limbal stem cell deficiency LSCD, stem cell therapy for vision loss

Is there a proven stem cell therapy for vision loss? When I started The Niche back in early 2010, one major area of hope was that there might one day be a stem cell therapy for vision loss or even blindness. Maybe even a cure for blindness. While we’re not there yet as a field,

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Capricor seeks FDA approval of deramiocel for Duchenne based on encouraging data

Linda Marbán, Capricor

The cell therapy biotech Capricor recently released new data from their Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) trial work. The data have generated excitement in the patient advocacy community. The stock has skyrocketed. How exciting are these new data? CEO Linda Marbán is quite upbeat and I think it’s justified. The firm is now seeking FDA approval

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New review of stem cell supplements and pills

Stem cell supplements

Today’s post is a review and fact-check of stem cell supplements. This is the second time I have looked at the state of stem cell supplements. The number of supplements has greatly increased. Supplements  |  Stem cell supplements claims | Stem cell activators | Supplement marketing | Visiclear, Visifree & Visishield |  Stem-Kine |  Regenexx supplements | Big

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Mostly discouraging trial of MSC-NPs or purported neural cells from MSCs for MS

MSCs for MS, MSC-NPs

The idea of mesenchymal cells or MSCs for MS has been around for a long time. However, there haven’t been that many strong clinical trials testing it. There’s a new paper out that reports one of the stronger MSC-related trials for MS in terms of design. In this case, they didn’t use just MSCs but

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Weekly reads: heterochromatin, H3.3, Mesoblast bump

N-myc, heterochromatin

My lab is focused in part on chromatin states in stem cells and cancer including heterochromatin. In fact, my lab’s website is chromatin.com. Heterochromatin is dense, often inactive chromatin. By H&E staining and electron microscopy, heterochromatin looks dark compared to the rest of the nucleus, largely composed of euchromatin. Toward the end of my postdoc

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US clinics widely selling supportive oligonucleotide therapy (SOT) or Q-REstrain therapy, from Greek firm RGCC

SOT, supportive oligonucleotide therapy

A few dozen clinics in the US sell an unproven RNA therapy called supportive oligonucleotide therapy or SOT. The product comes from a Greek firm RGCC or Research Genetic Cancer Center, which also pre-tests patients’ gene expression to design the RNA product. Clinics marketing SOT in the US say it is intended to act by

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