Could this autologous stem cell transplant be the cure for COPD?
Positive findings from a clinical trial exploring an autologous stem cell transplant for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have suggested that the therapy is safe and effective in treating the condition.
COPD is a respiratory disease characterized by inflammation of the airways and progressive damage to lung tissue. Hallmarks of the disease include shortness of breath, chest tightness, a chronic cough and frequent chest infections, all of which progressively impair the quality of a patient’s life. With current therapeutic options focused on widening the airways to improve airflow, through bronchodilators, there remains a need to find a cure that can regenerate and repair damaged lung tissue.
Seeking to address this clinical unmet need, a team of researchers from Tongji University (Shanghai, China) conducted a Phase I clinical trial of P63+ autologous lung progenitor cells for the treatment of COPD. The team set out to investigate the safety and efficacy of the therapy in COPD patients, ranging from stage II to stage IV in the early, open-label trial.
In preclinical models, adult lung progenitor cells such as P63+ progenitor cells have previously demonstrated regenerative potential in lung epithelium. Using this as the basis of their study, the team isolated autologous progenitor cells expressing the p63 protein. The cells were then cultured for a period that ranged between 3–5 weeks, before being transplanted back into the patients’ lungs via bronchoscopy.
Evaluating the efficacy of the treatment, the team found a statistically significant improvement in the diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide in the intervention group (n=17) when compared to the control group (n=3) at 24 weeks post–transplantation. In addition, during physical walking tests lasting 6 minutes, participants in the intervention groups had increased walking distances, demonstrating an improvement in lung function. Transcriptomic analysis of isolated cells from both the control and intervention group revealed that the efficacy of the treatment was linked to higher expression of the P63 gene. No serious adverse events were reported in the study, suggesting that the therapy is safe.
The positive findings from the study suggest that autologous transplantation of P63+ lung progenitor cells might be a viable therapeutic strategy for COPD. Looking ahead to the future, a Phase II multicenter trial is currently underway to further assess the safety and efficacy of the therapy.
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