I just remembered the Novo Nordisk foundation's donation mentioned by
@bedger:
The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), the Danstem Institute from the University of Copenhagen and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne have received 300m euros from the Novo Nordisk foundation. The aim of this new international consortium is to bring stem-cell based therapies from the lab to the patient.
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2021/12/300-million-euros-for-new-international-stem-cell-consortium
NN, who recently sealed a deal with FCDI for the Development of iPSC-Derived Cell Therapies in attempt to [insert your fearmongering attempts here - and again, thank you for all your efforts] Cynata:
https://www.fujifilmcdi.com/news-item/fcdi-license-agreement-with-novo-nordisk/Anyways, the person in charge is Professor Ton Rabelink:
"
At the LUMC reNEW is coordinated by Professor Ton Rabelink: ‘This donation is a fantastic boost to this relatively new field within medicine. It also builds on the ambition that has been made possible by the National Science Agenda and in which we collaborate within national consortia such as Regmed XB.’"Professor Rabelink, has recently appeared on these threads in connection with an upcoming trial in Kidney Transplantation:
"The clinical trial, entitled the “Safety and Efficacy of iPSC-derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Therapy in Renal Transplant Recipients - the Nereid Study”, will be led by Prof. Ton Rabelink, Head of the Department of Internal Medicine of LUMC and will seek to recruit 10 patients who have undergone a renal transplant. The trial is expected to commence in 2023, pending receipt of customary and relevant regulatory, ethics and administrative approvals."
https://app.sharelinktechnologies.com/announcement/asx/0b783d157b452fde5812178824fb4404A new interview with Professor Rabelink gave ab interview recently, which can be found here (in Dutch):
https://npvdb.nl/2023/WEB%202023-01-02%20[1].pdf
I have used onlinedoctranslator.com for the translation (hence there are a few incorrectly translated words, that can however be figured out based on the context):
A few of his remarks are very interesting, like fibrosis and immunosuppression.
Cymerus-MSC pre-clinical studies mentioned the following:
Asthma:
“Most importantly, what we found was you can treat fibrosis (hardening or scarring of the lung) very effectively,” said Associate Professor Samuel, who heads the Monash BDI’s Fibrosis Laboratory.
“When we’ve tested other types of stem cells they haven’t been able to fully reverse scarring and lung dysfunction associated with asthma – we’ve had to combine them with anti-scarring drugs to achieve that. These cells were remarkable on their own as they were able to effectively reverse the scarring that contributes to lung dysfunction and difficulty in breathing,” he said.
https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/trials-show-unique-stem-cells-a-potential-asthma-treatmentIPF:
“These results are extremely encouraging. While they are very consistent with our previous studies of these cells in a model of asthma, it was important to confirm that the potent anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects of Cymerus MSCs would be replicated in IPF, which is a disease with very different underlying pathophysiology. We look forward to publishing our results in a peer-reviewed journal in due course.”
- Professor Samuel
https://files.cynata.com/613/200907CymerusMSCsEffectiveinPreclinicalLungDiseaseStudy.pdfIt was also noted in our pre-clinical study in orthoptic tracheal transplants (MA Khan):
"
Lung transplantation is a life-saving surgical procedure for patients with end-stage lung diseases. Unfortunately, this therapeutic strategy is vulnerable by the occurrence of chronic rejection, which occurs when the recipient’s immune response impairs the transplanted organ through microvascular disruption. Loss of graft microvasculature has been recognized as an underlying cause of chronic rejection, which is manifested by terminal airway fibrosis of the transplanted organs [1,2]. Existing immunosuppressive drugs for organ transplantation may achieve sufficient immunosuppression to prevent organ rejection or limit autoreactivity, but they are typically not successful in achieving long-term survival of the graft or preventing progression of fibrosis and chronic rejection [3]. Existing immunosuppressive drugs are also associated with low specificity leading to toxicity and increased risk of infections and malignancies.[...]
We investigated the possible therapeutic benefits of Cymerus iPSC-derived MSCs on immune tolerance, graft hypoxia, ischemia, tissue injury, and progression of fibrosis during airway transplantation.[...]
Conclusion
iPSC-derived MSC-mediated immunosuppression is sufficient to increase peripheral CD4+FOXP3+Tregs, which regulate reparative and anti-inflammatory activities to alloimmune inflammation during rejection. These preclinical findings demonstrate that iPSC-derived MSC-mediated immunosuppression is a key target for facilitating Treg-mediated transplant tolerance. Taken together, these findings highlight the key immunomodulatory potential of novel iPSC-derived MSCs on Treg-mediated immune tolerance, which validate a proof-of-concept that iPSC-derived MSC-mediated immune-suppression is sufficient to establish Treg-mediated immunotolerance during transplantation; further studies are needed to investigate the therapeutic efficacies of Cymerus iPSC-derived MSCs with other existing therapeutic options in the induction of long-term allograft tolerance, and this data might have vital implications for future therapeutic alternatives for lung transplantation.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6757436/
(20min delay)