Cell therapy weekly: New scarring model identifies anti-fibrosis drug

Written by RegMedNet

This week: Application for new CAR-T cell therapy against mantle cell lymphoma made to the US FDA following positive clinical trial, and AMSBIO’s 3D cell culture tool claimed to be invaluable in neuronal research.

The news highlights:

New scarring model utilizing stem cells identifies anti-fibrosis drug
Application for new CAR-T cell therapy against mantle cell lymphoma made to the FDA following positive clinical trial
AMSBIO’s 3D cell culture tool claimed to be invaluable in neuronal research

New scarring model utilizing stem cells identifies anti-fibrosis drug

Research produced by University College Los Angeles (CA, USA) utilizes the variety of cells produced by iPSCs to create a new model of scarring, which they were able to test to identify an anti-fibrosis drug. The rapid and uncontrolled scarring that can occur after damage, often referred to as fibrosis, has very few treatment options beyond organ transplantation; however, the new in vitro model for the condition may allow other treatments to be developed in the future. Previously, no model has been available for the complicated structure, but the new iPSC-based model was able to replicate fibrotic tissue and identify a drug candidate that stopped or reversed fibrosis in animal.

“Millions of people living with fibrosis have very limited treatment options,” explained Brigitte Gomperts (University College Los Angeles). “Once scarring gets out of control, we don’t have any treatments that can stop it, except for whole-organ transplant.”

“This drug candidate seems to be able to stop and reverse progressive scarring in a dish by actually breaking down the scar tissue. We tested it in animal models of fibrosis of the lungs and eyes and found that it has promise to treat both of those diseases,” Gomperts concluded.

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Application for new CAR-T cell therapy against mantle cell lymphoma made to the FDA following positive clinical trial

Following the presentation of positive clinical trial results this week, Kite (CA, USA) has applied to the US FDA (MD, USA) for their novel CAR-T cell therapy, KTE-X19. In the Phase II clinical trial, dubbed ZUMA-2, KTE-X19 demonstrated a strong impact against treatment-resistant relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma. Kite also plan to apply for testing within the European Union in early 2020.

“There remains a significant need for new treatments for patients with relapsed/refractory MCL despite recent advances, so this regulatory filing is an especially important milestone for the MCL community,” explained Ken Takeshita, Kite’s Global Head of Clinical Development. “We look forward to working with the US FDA to bring KTE-X19 to appropriate patients as quickly as possible and continuing to deliver on the promise of our industry-leading cell therapy development program with a second CAR-T therapy.”

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AMSBIO’s 3D cell culture tool claimed to be invaluable in neuronal research

Researchers from Stanford University Medical School (CA, USA) have utilized the Mimetix® aligned 3D cell culture scaffold, produced by AMSBIO (Milton, UK), in their myelination research and claimed that the product was invaluable to the work. In the new Cell study, the co-author, Meng-Meng Fu, cultured oligodendrocytes in the 3D culture scaffold and described the formation of satellite organelles, which organize the microtubule architecture. The Mimetix scaffold is designed to mimic an extracellular matrix, providing a physical structure for cell types such as heart, nerves and muscle where orientation can have a large impact on the in vitro studies.

“The Mimetix 3D microfibers from AMSBIO have allowed us to understand the 3D shape of oligodendrocytes. This invaluable tool has yielded information that we would not have been able to acquire using traditional 2D cell culture platforms,” commented Meng-Meng Fu (Stanford University). “Using 3D microfibers to culture mature oligodendrocytes for up to 2 weeks, we were able to measure myelin sheath length and number of sheaths per cell. In addition, we showed in our paper that these data were consistent with in vivo measurements taken from individual oligodendrocytes in the cortex.”

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For more weekly cell therapy news, read previous editions of the cell therapy weekly.

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