5 Stem Cell Patents Issued Last Week

Dear manoj kumar valluru,

Last week 5 patents of relevance to the area of stem cells were issued.

1. # 7,311,905 (Patent Spotlight), covers a population of adult stem cells that have characteristics of embryonic stem cells.

2. # 7,312,077 provides a hepatic cell line that makes insulin.

3. # 7,311,904 covers tissue matrices seeded with placentally derived embryonic-like cells.

4. # 7,312,078 covers chelating agents for expansion of hematopoietic stem cells.

5. # 7,313,442 teaches implantation of electrodes into specific brain areas for treatment of mood disorders.

In The News

Autologous G-CSF mobilized CD34 for angina

Friday December 28th, 2007 @ 22:54:26 EST

Chicago, IL -

The use of stem cells for myocardial repair was originally proposed after mouse studies demonstrated what appeared to be human bone marrow derived stem cells differentiating into myocardium. Subsequently, these experiments were translated into clinical studies, which utilized autologous bone marrow cells as sources of stem cells. Statistically significant increases in some efficacy parameters were seen in a double blind study study as well as another major randomized trial

Patients eager to attain stem cell therapy without waiting for clinical trials have been treated at ex-US venues with reports of positive results.

In a recent study (Losordo et al. Intramyocardial transplantation of autologous CD34+ stem cells for intractable angina: a phase I/IIa double-blind, randomized controlled trial. Circulation. 2007 Jun 26;115:3165-72) 24 patients with angina that were not eligible for revascularization were selected, of which 18 were randomized to receive escalating doses of autologous stem cell therapy and 4 placebo control. The stem cell therapy consisted of G-CSF mobilized Isolex-isolated CD34 cells. The cells were administered using electromechanical mapping of the myocardium using a NOGA system. Of the 18 patients in the treated group, subgroups of 4 patients received 5 × 10, 1 × 10, and 5 × 10 cells per kilogram. Cells were administered in a total volume of 2 ml, divided into 10 intramyocardial, transendocardial injections into areas identified as viable but ischemic. No dose dependent efficacy or adverse effects were observed. Although the study was not powered for efficacy determination, trends towards lower angina frequency, decreased nitroglycerine usage, increased exercise time, and decreased Canadian Cardiovascular Society class were observed in the patients receiving CD34 cells compared to placebo controls. The lead author, Dr Douglas W. Losordo from Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute and Program in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Ill is planning to expand the study to a multi-center 150 patient trial.

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This Week's Patent Spotlight

Embryonic-like stem cells derived from post-partum mammalian placenta, and uses and methods of treatment using said cells

Patent Number: 7,311,905

Assignee | Inventor

Stem cell populations are known from the cord blood as well as the placental matrix In the current patent a stem cell population from the placenta is covered that possesses markers of adult stem cells as well as embryonic stem cells.

For example, the first claim covers "A composition comprising human stem or progenitor cells and isolated human placental stem cells that are SH2.sup.+, SH3.sup.+, SH4.sup.+ and OCT-4.sup.+, wherein said placental stem cells are obtained from a placenta that has been drained of cord blood and flushed to remove residual blood".

The presence of embryonic stem cell markers such as OCT4 has previously been described in other non-embryonic sources of stem cells such as in the stem cells derived from the amniotic fluid

This patent is interesting since it has two clinical prophetic examples for the use of the cell population covered. The first involves treatment of ALS and the second involves treatment of atherosclerosis.

Although people may argue that there are issues surrounding the clinical use of allogeneic cell populations, since the cells appear to be mesenchymal, this may not be a significant problem given that mesenchymal stem cells appear to be capable of acting as universal donors

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