Adios Sickle Cell Anemia (again)

I’ve been shocked at the number of visitors the sickle cell anemia posts tend to draw to this blog. Well, here we go again! More great news. A little boy is cured of the disease from cells taken from his baby sister’s umbilical cord. I don’t want to give away the details of this fabulous “human interest” story, so just take a few minutes to read it:

Brentwood boy whose family moved here from Panama is cured of sickle cell anemia

By Sandy Kleffman
Contra Costa Times

Article Launched: 06/21/2008 07:56:59 PM PDT

Edna Chang-Vega and her husband left behind good jobs, a comfortable home and extended family in Panama in the hope of obtaining better treatment for Isaac, who suffered from debilitating sickle cell anemia.

Worried about Isaac’s bouts with pneumonia and frequent hospitalizations, the family moved in with a cousin in Antioch. They figured someone in the United States could help ease Isaac’s symptoms.

“Everybody knows that the United States is a big, big country and they are very advanced in medicine,” Chang-Vega said.

Their sacrifice would succeed beyond anything they could have imagined.

Next came an unplanned pregnancy and a perfect match. In 2005, doctors at Children’s Hospital Oakland transplanted into Isaac umbilical cord blood from his young sister, Eunice.

The 11-year-old is now cured of a disease that just a few years ago was considered incurable.

“We were very lucky to come to the right place,” Chang-Vega said last week as she sat in her Brentwood home. “We prayed to God to help us, and somehow he helped us.” continue

 

More posts about sickle cell anemia, start here, or type in “sickle cell” on the search feature

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Hope for Parkinson’s

According to a Griffith University study, published last Thursday in the journal Stem Cells, there is evidence that stem cells taken from a patient’s nose could produce dopamine-producing brain cells when transplanted into the brain. It has been a success in mice anyway.

I find this study particularly interesting because just a few years ago human spinal cord injury patients were also treated with stem cells from their own noses and every one of the seven patients showed improved ASIA motor scores, among other improvements (Read testimony from patient Jacki Rabon, or watch video).

Previous posts:
Stem Cells Treat Parkinson’s Disease
Ethical Life Science News (see last paragraph, story “Cell-based Therapy Shows Promise In Patients With Parkinson’s Disease”

Cure Found for Child’s “Untreatable” Skin Disease!

Two year old Nate Liao is the first person to be successfully treated with cord blood and bone marrow stem cells to correct his epidermolysis bullosa (EB). Now doctor’s say they have set the path for a cure for his painful genetic skin disease. Those who suffer from this disease experience a life of chronic pain, blisters, sores, amputations, infections and it can eventually lead to cancer. Nate received the stem cells from his healthy brother last October. Nate’s brother Jacob, who also has the disease, received a cord-blood transplant from an unrelated donor on May 30. Watch video

While scientists back off claims that embryonic stem cells will ever treat human patients, ethical “adult” stem cells continue to impact the lives of many.

Previous ASCA post:
Adult stem cells may help children with a severe skin disease

Cord Blood Clinical Trials

More human patients will be treated with “adult” stem cells:

DURHAM, NC–( Marketwire - April 16, 2008 ) - Aldagen, Inc. today announced that the first patient has been treated in a Phase III clinical trial for ALD-101. Aldagen is developing ALD-101 to improve cord blood transplants used to treat inherited metabolic diseases in pediatric patients. ALD-101 is a population of adult stem cells isolated from cord blood using Aldagen’s proprietary technology. The company commenced the Phase III clinical trial of ALD-101 to evaluate its ability to accelerate neutrophil and platelet engraftment following cord blood transplantation in these patients.

40 pediatric patients with inherited metabolic diseases undergoing a cord blood transplant will be treated in the multi-site Phase III clinical study. The primary goal of the study is to determine if ALD-101 can accelerate the restoration of circulating platelets. A 24-patient Phase I/II study of ALD-101 was previously conducted and a statistically significant reduction in the time to platelet engraftment was observed in patients receiving ALD-101 as part of a cord blood transplant compared to patients who had received a cord blood transplant without ALD-101 in an earlier independent clinical trial.

Read more

See my adult stem cell archive

China stem cell therapy offers hope, U.S. offers “caution”.

There are several stories here, but let’s first give a hat tip to Don Margolis for blogging this article about little Lydia Olmsted, born with an ocular defect, septo-optic dysplasia. You may recall reading about another little girl here, Rylea, born with another ocular defect, optic nerve hypoplasia.

So, what are the stories here?

First, hope where there was none. Lydia can see better after having traveled to China to receive therapies derived from umbilical cord cells. Just like Rylea.

These therapies are not FDA approved. American stem cell scientists as well as other medical professionals warn patients to be cautious because these treatments have not been submitted to the protocols required in FDA clinical trials.

But both these families are well-informed about the novelty of the treatments they have submitted their daughters to. Both the girls can see things they could not before. American physicians time and time again offered them no hope. What would you do? And what do future families stand to gain because these families were willing to not only take the risk, but in addition, pay for it, too?

How many opportunities, therapies, and cures have we lost (to foreign researchers?) . . . not because of caution, but because of a pathological obsession with the use of embryonic stem cells? Where would be now if all those minds, all that talent, and truly — all that money had gone to adult stem cell research?

Want a cure for cystic fibrosis? Thank Iowa pig farmers.

True science is creative. Imaginative and resourceful minds show us that ethical boundaries don’t inhibit productive research. Scientists on a quest to study cystic fibrosis found that genetic mutations in mice could not replicate the disease as it is expressed in humans, so they turned to pigs. Yet, even the genetically altered pigs were not able to inherit full blown cystic fibrosis. That didn’t stop them either. Thinking outside the petri dish offered a solution. Relying on natural reproduction - good old -fashioned breeding, the Iowa researchers are expecting their first batch of baby pigs with cystic fibrosis any time now. These little piggies with cystic fibrosis will pretty closely model their human counterparts.

The moral of the story? Even on the quest to save lives, real science need not destroy embryonic humans.

Read the story, here.

New biotech to operate according to Catholic ethics

We already have several great biotechs that operate this way - fully in line with and inspired by Catholic ethics - including the John Paul II Stem Cell Research Institute, founded by Dr. Alan Moy. And more and more Catholic science professionals are taking initiatives to ensure that all of us can enjoy the progress of science without the problems of science. Of particular focus is the potential problem of using therapies derived from embryonic stem cells, or more commonly, the already existent problem of using vaccines that are generated from the tissue of aborted babies. While our culpability in the use of these products has been reduced to “very remote” cooperation, why not find another way to create vaccines and therapies - reducing the need for any degree of cooperation in inherently evil acts?

Dr. Theresa Deisher has announced the formation of AVM Biotechnology, LLC. Deisher has consistently spoken out against the use of fetal tissue (from aborted babies) to create vaccines. Her org is working to develop ethically derived vaccines and bring them into the marketplace. In addition, AVM will work in the area of regenerative medicine - which uses autologous tissues and adult stem cells.

Read here to find out more about AVM Biotechnology, LLC.

Adult stem cells may help children with a severe skin disease

Don Margolis blogged this story about the possibility of a new hope for a terrible disease. Because I correspond a lot with parents who are considering termination - knowing that their babies will be born with defects or syndromes, Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) has been one of those conditions I’ve always dreaded discussing; it’s awful, a life of chronic pain, likely amputations, infections . . . and yet each person affected by EB (there are several kinds with differing severity) has a right to life, even if it is a difficult one. Now, there may be some hope for these children like Jake pictured above with his unaffected brother, Julian. 

Read about this treatment – and pray. Imagine what a successful treatment means to this family, and all the families dealing with EB.

Lansing’s FAITH Magazine: saying no to embryonic-destructive therapies

I just love stories like these. They give me great hope that the generation coming up behind me will have the moral chutzpah to do the right thing, even if it costs them something.

Read about two young men, brothers,  hoping for a cure for diabetes, but not at any cost, here, and Jeni Rummelt, who received adult stem cell therapy after an accident left her with a serious spinal injury, here.

And of course, we have no shortage of young people living out their convictions right here at ASCA. If you haven’t taken a moment to “meet” Chelsea, don’t you think it’s about time?

“A Cellular Approach”

Shhh…don’t tell the drug companies! Here is a news clip from the Journal of the American Medical Association about patients with auto immune diseases and cardiovascular disorders being treated with their own stem cells. From Dr. Richard Burt from Northwestern University Feinburg School of Medicine on the JAMA Report:

“It’s a whole new approach to these diseases. Rather than just surgery or drugs, you can use a cellular approach that seems, in many different studies, to be benefiting the patient.”

The review of these treatments appears in this weeks publication of JAMA.

(a friend of mine emailed me this story after seeing it on Vital Signs)