2 stem cell patents issued last week

Dear manoj kumar valluru,

Last week 2 patents of relevance to the area of stem cells were issued.

1. # 7,338,938 (Patent Spotlight), teaches how to protect hematopoietic stem cell compartment from chemotherapy by administration of angiotensin derived peptides.

2. # 7,338,676 provides a nutraceutical pine cone extract for making stem cells into dendritic cells.

In The News

Mesenchymals for wound healing

Wednesday March 5th, 2008 @ 12:15:10 EST

Nara Medical University, Japan -

Mesenchymal stem cells are classically defined as CD34 negative, CD45 negative, SH2 and SH4 positive, and Thy-1 (CD90) positive cells. Therapeutically mesenchymal stem cells are attractive because they do not require matching with recipients, supposedly because mesenchymal stem cells are immune modulatory Osiris Therapeutics not only holds some of the key patents on mesenchymal stem cell composition of matter but also patents on allogeneic uses of mesenchymal stem cells Interestingly it is also Osiris that demonstrated intravenously delivered mesenchymal stem cells help patients with heart failure Given the regenerative, immune modulatory, and immune privileged properties of mesenchymal stem cells, one exciting possible use for these cells would be in acceleration of wound healing. In a recent paper (Yoshikawa et al. Wound therapy by marrow mesenchymal cell transplantation. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2008 Mar;121:860-77) this is exactly what was performed.

The authors derived bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells from a donor and cultured them, and placed the cells on a collagen sponge in order to mimick an artificial dermis layer. In order to test bioactivity of this “graft" the authors implanted it subcutaneously into an immune compromised mouse and explanted it after ten days. Histological examination of the implant demonstrated differentiation of the human marrow mesenchymal cells into dermal tissue.

The next step the authors wanted to see if this collagen-MSC mixture may be of therapeutic value.

Twenty patients with treatment refractory dermatopathies were selected and autologous "grafts" were generated using bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and collagen matrix. This graft was placed on the wound areas. In 18 of the 20 patients improvements in the previous non-healing wounds was demonstrated.

These data make one ask the question why allogeneic "off the shelf” products for this indication are not already on the market.

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This Week's Patent Spotlight

Methods for treating a patient undergoing chemotherapy

Patent Number: 7,338,938

Assignee | Inventor

The current patent covers the use of a peptide derived from angiotensin I for stimulation of hematopoiesis after insult to the blood making system of a host. Specifically, the patent addresses the hematopoietic insult of chemotherapy. Since many types of chemotherapeutic agents kill proliferating cells, the hematopoietic system is often injured as a consequence of administration of these agents. In fact, the dose limiting toxicity associated with chemotherapy is often hematopoietic.

Other approaches towards protecting the hematopoietic system during chemotherapy are known. One that is often used is the administration of hematopoietic growth factors such as granulocyte colony stimulating factor Experimental approaches for stimulating other types of cells after hematopoietic insult are also being attempted, for example, the use of thrombopoietin mimetic peptides for the stimulation of megakaryocyte rebound. Clinically used agents such as human chorionic gonadotropin have also been demonstrated to stimulate hematopoiesis.

The current patent is interesting since angiotensin is usually associated with physiological control of blood pressure. However of interest is that fact that the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibits an inhibitor of hematopoiesis called AcSDKP and that ACE is preferentially activated in leukemic bone marrow (Beyazit et al. Overexpression of the local bone marrow renin-angiotensin system in acute myeloid leukemia. J Natl Med Assoc. 2007 Jan;99:57-63).

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