Cell Therapym | Scientific Background | Pipeline

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Cell therapy offers an opportunity to treat many degenerative diseases caused by the premature death or malfunction of specific cell types and the body’s failure to replace or restore them. The only hope of complete recovery from such diseases at present is transplant surgery, but there are not enough donors to treat all patients and even when rare donors can be found, this is limited to a few body parts and is very expensive.

Angiogenic Cell Precursor Therapy
Progenitor or stem cells are 'master cells' found in all vertebrate animals including humans. These cells can divide to give cells either identical to themselves or differentiated into a specific cell type for indefinite periods - often throughout the life of an organism. With these properties, they play important roles in the processes of normal development, regeneration and repair of damaged tissues.

AngloEast StemCell Therapy's products use autologous progenitor cells, which are cells originating from the same individual to whom they are later administered. The type of cells we currently employ in StemCell is a subclass of progenitor cells called Angiogenic Cell Precursors (ACPs). ACPs possess the ability to differentiate into endothelium, the layer of cells forming blood capillaries, and the internal lining of larger blood vessels, as well as into muscle cells. These precursor cells are involved in both re-angiogenicization (re-coating of disrupted blood vessels) and neovascularization (proliferation of new blood vessels), capabilities which allow the development of new therapies using these cells for the treatment of severe cardiac disorders, as the vast majority of those diseases are caused by disturbances in the blood vessels of the heart.

AngloEast StemCell Therapy results of clinical trials for the treatment of severe angina pectoris using StemCell have been encouraging and indicate that the therapy is safe and beneficial to patients.

Indications
AngloEast StemCell Therapy is focused on the discovery, development, application and commercialization of cell-based therapies for the treatment of severe cardiovascular disorders, the most common chronic diseases in mankind. These disorders significantly compromise the quality of life of the individuals afflicted and despite considerable advances in medical therapy and improvements in revascularization procedures, such as coronary artery graft, balloon angioplasty and stenting of the coronary vessels, a substantial proportion of patients still suffer from refractory chest pains (angina pectoris) and other severe symptoms, progressively limiting the activity of these patients until they become bedridden.

We believe that AngloEast StemCell Therapy's technology holds the potential to revolutionize the treatment of Severe Angina Pectoris and become a new standard of care by offering treatments that will significantly improve cardiac functioning with minimally invasive, low-risk procedures.

The Science of Cell Therapy
Considerable scientific research has been carried out during the last few years to elucidate the mechanisms behind progenitor cell development, localization and function. Progress has also been achieved in establishing therapeutic protocols for treating a variety of conditions, such as peripheral limb ischemia, acute myocardial ischemia and infarction by using angiogenic cells.

Numerous animal experiments and clinical trials assessing the safety and feasibility of autologous progenitor cell transplantation have proven this therapeutic strategy to be relatively safe, effective, and most likely possessing the potential to augment myocardial blood flow with associated alleviation of the angina symptoms as manifested in improved patients' physical functioning. Recent studies also demonstrate that implantation of autologous progenitor cells after Acute Myocardial Infarction appears to be safe and effective in limiting post infarction damage. Thus, the potential benefit to patients is significant while being associated with a minimal risk.

2. Scientific background <Go To Top>

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Mother company of AngloEast StemCell Therapy and is focused on the discovery, development, application, and commercialization of cell-based therapies for the treatment of disease, particularly Congestive Heart Failure, Cardiac Ischemia and Peripheral Artery Disease. Cardiac Ischemia is the name for lack of blood flow and oxygen to the heart muscle. It is a situation in which the blood flow within a coronary artery is limited to the point where the oxygen needs of the heart muscle cannot be met. Cardiac Ischemia occurs when a coronary artery (which delivers oxygen-rich blood to the heart) is either narrowed or completely blocked. As a result of this blockage, blood flow and oxygen delivery to the heart muscle are limited.

Symptoms can include a type of chest pain, pressure, or discomfort called angina. Some people experience no symptoms at all from an episode (silent ischemia). However, AngloEast StemCell Therapy's technology holds the potential to revolutionize the treatment of Severe Angina Pectoris and become a new standard of care by offering treatments that will significantly improve cardiac functioning with the least invasive and low risk treatment procedures.

3. Pipeline <Go To Top>
AngloEast StemCell Therapy is engaged in extensive research activities, which will lead to additional novel therapies becoming part of the company's product pipeline. Our unique ability to merge these innovative treatments with high class professional clinical experience and practice will enable us to achieve our ultimate goal: to offer the best medical care possible for a range of hitherto incurable diseases or patients who were not cured after exhausting all other medical and surgical modalities. We intend to transfer our expertise in cellular treatments of cardiovascular disorders to other medical fields. Among these are ophthalmic disorders, such as retinal degenerations and central nervous system diseases, such as stroke and neural degeneration.
Stem cell therapies for ophthalmic disorders
The vast majority of incurable blinding diseases result from the inability of the retina, the light sensitive tissue in the eye, to regenerate. Like the other parts of the central nervous system, the brain and the spinal cord, when the retina is affected by disease or injury, it ceases to function and does not regenerate. Current medical technologies are helpless to achieve regeneration of the retina and thus can not cure the complete or partial blindness caused by many eye and body diseases. The three diseases which account for the vast majority of blindness are all retinal diseases: Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Glaucoma, and Diabetic Retinopathy. Several statistics which illustrate the prevalence of these diseases are detailed below (data for USA 1998):
Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD): A disease with its onset usually after age 60 that progressively destroys the macula, the central portion of the retina, impairing accurate and color vision. It damages the ability to see straight ahead clearly and sometimes makes it difficult to read, drive, or perform other daily activities that require fine central vision.
21,000,000 Americans (1/3 of those over 50) are at risk of developing AMD. 10,000,000 suffer visual loss due to macular degeneration, and 104,000 are legally blind from the disease.
Glaucoma A disease marked by progressive degeneration of the optic nerve, often associated with increased pressure within the eyeball. It usually results in gradual loss of vision.
2,600,000 people in the United States are visually impaired by glaucoma. 120,000 are presently blind from glaucoma and 5,500 become blind each year from the disease.
Diabetic Retinopathy A complication of diabetes which is a major cause of blindness worldwide, resulting from disturbances of vessels which supply the retina with blood and oxygen. Symptoms include decreased vision and color perception.
14,000,000 diabetics in the USA are at risk of becoming blind due to the disease and 1,800,000 diabetics have severe visual impairment from retinal disease.
We are currently investigating a clinically applicable method to reverse the relentless course taken by these blinding diseases either by inducing blood vessel growth in eyes which suffer loss of blood supply or by replacing the lost retinal cells with cells taken from the patient's own blood and specifically modified out of the body to become retinal cells and then injecting them into the eye. Preliminary research in animals gives us reason to be optimistic about the clinical applicability of this treatment modality.
Cell Therapy for Neurological disorders
Diseases of the brain are a very common scourge of mankind, robbing people of mental and motor abilities often eventually leading to their death. The best known disorder of this kind is Alzheimer's disease, but there are very many others leading to rapid or gradual deterioration of brain function, such as Stroke, Vascular Dementia, ALS and Parkinson's Disease.
Pathological processes in the brain are particularly devastating as this organ, unlike most others, is not endowed with spontaneous regeneration capacity. Furthermore, each of the brain cells (neurons) has a particular function unshared by other neurons. Therefore, brain cells that die are not replaced and their function is not be recovered.
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive cognitive deterioration together with declining activities of daily living and neuropsychiatric symptoms or behavioral changes. It is the most common cause of dementia.
An estimated 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. The number of Americans with Alzheimer’s has more than doubled since 1980, and will continue to grow.
Vascular Dementia (VD) is the second most common cause of dementia in the United States and Europe in the elderly, but it is the most common form in some parts of Asia. The term refers to a group of syndromes caused by different mechanisms all resulting in vascular lesions in the brain.
The prevalence of VD is 1.5% in Western countries and approximately 2.2% in Japan. It accounts for 50% of all dementias in Japan, 20% to 40% in Europe and 15% in Latin America. Twenty five percent of stroke patients develop new-onset dementia within 1 year of their stroke.
Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that affects the control of muscles, and so may affect movement, speech and posture. The worldwide prevalence of Parkinson's disease is 4 to 6 million people. The disease usually has a long, subtle onset, so diagnosis occurs most often after many years of subclinical disease. The greatest prevalence of any country is the U.S.A., with between 100 and 250 cases per 100,000. Men are affected at a rate about double that of women, especially in the older age groups. About 2%of the population develops the disease some time during life.
A stroke, also known as Cerebrovascular Accident (CVA) is an acute neurologic disease in which the blood supply to a part of the brain is interrupted. As this part can no longer receive adequate oxygen its brain cells are damaged or die, impairing functions which originate from this part of the brain. Stroke may lead to death or to its victims often losing permanently the functions of the affected brain part. Stroke is the third leading cause of death and adult disability in the US and industrialized European nations. On average, a stroke occurs every 45 seconds and someone dies from one every 3 minutes.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease or Motor Neurone Disease) is a progressive, almost invariably fatal neurological disease. In ALS motor neurons degenerate and subsequently die, ceasing to send messages to muscles which gradually weaken and die and the ability of the brain to start and control voluntary movement is lost. However, even patients in advanced stages of the disease may retain the same intelligence, memory, and personality they had before its onset. As many as 30,000 Americans have Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and an estimated 5,000 cases of the disease are diagnosed in the United States each year.
As the cells used clinically by AngloEast StemCell Therapy have proven their ability to restore blood supply to body organs of patients deficient in blood vessels, we are now engaged in experiments to ascertain that these cells can restore blood vessels to the brain. If successful, treatment will be available to the many brain diseases caused by reduction or loss of blood supply.
However, even if those therapies will be proven clinically effective, lost neurons will not regenerate and some lost functions will not be completely restored. For this purpose, AngloEast StemCell Therapy is developing stem cells destined to become neurons. It has already been shown that when injected into the body, they home in on areas where neurons are lacking and settle in the pathological site.
Combining the ability to replace both neurons and blood vessels in the brain will enable comprehensive treatment of the majority of neurological diseases.