3 stem cell patents issued last week

Dear manoj kumar valluru,

Last week 3 patents of relevance to the area of stem cells were issued.

1. # 7,335,490 (Patent Spotlight), teaches how to stimulate cardiac regeneration by administration of a specially made type of erythropoietin.

2. # 7,335,641 teaches the use of a molecule similar to KGF-2 for stimulation of hair growth.

3. # 7,335,230 covers an implantable device that is useful for regeneration of connective tissue.

In The News

Embryonic Stem Cell Homing

Friday February 29th, 2008 @ 15:52:20 EST

Boston, MA -

Administration of bone marrow derived stem cells to patients post-infarct has demonstrated positive clinical results in double blind trials. Additionally, Osiris Therapeutics has reported intravenous administration of allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells increases cardiac function in similar patient populations.

A recent study (Malek et al. Successful implantation of intravenously administered stem cells correlates with severity of inflammation in murine myocarditis. Pflugers Arch. 2006 Jun;452:268-75) asked the question of whether intravenous administration of embryonic stem cells may be beneficial in viral induced heart failure. The scientists first demonstrated that after viral (encephalomyocarditis virus) infection there is a gradient of inflammatory cytokines produced, with peak serum concentrations at day 14 post infection. This is interesting since coxsackie b3 viral infection induces mobilization of mesenchymal stem cells on day 3 post infection

The investigators then performed intravenous injection of GFP-marked mouse embryonic stem cells at different timepoints. Cells injected at day 14 had the highest rate of incorporation in comparison to other time-points. Additionally injection at day 14 induced the highest rate of regenerative activity.

These data have very interesting implications on the migratory mechanisms of embryonic stem cells. Do ES cells have CXCR-4 on them?

Ask a question OR leave your comments.

This Week's Patent Spotlight

Use of erythropoietin for the preventive or curative treatment of cardiac failure

Patent Number: 7,335,490

Assignee | Inventor

The use of erythropoietin for non-hematopoietic purposes has been increasing in the last couple of years. One obvious example is the Canadian company Stem Cell Therapeutics (sss.v) which is using erythropoietin together with human chorionic gonadotropin for treatment of patients post-stroke. Other uses of erthrypoietin include direct stimulation of neurite outgrowth

The current patent covers the use of a specific type of recombinant erythropoietin for treatment of a patient with heart failure. Specifically the patent claims a recombinant erthyropoietin that is produced in an "isolated host cell expressing at least the Early Region 1A (E1A) protein of an adenovirus, wherein said host cell is a cell as deposited under European Collection of Animal Cell Cultures (ECACC) no. 96022940".

In the summary of the invention the inventors make an interesting discussion. Essentially they state that EPO has conventionally been used for the treatment of anemia and that some of the anemic patients had heart failure. Specifically, the inventors discuss a type of heart failure that is actually associated with anemia. When the EPO was used to treat the anemia an increased heart performance was observed. Accordingly the inventors asked whether non-hematopoietic modulating effects of EPO could be at work, which it seems like they were.

The examples in the patent include:

1. Detection of EPO receptor in human and rat heart tissue

2. Anti-apoptotic effects of EPO in the ischemia reperfusion rat model

3. Inhibition of apoptosis in chronic ischemia models

Ask a question OR leave your comments.

LATEST JOBS