Scientists' new approach can provide better treatment for cancer

Researchers have recently found a method to expand blood stem cells that could lead to new and better cancer treatment, it has been reported.

Scientists from the University Of Colorado School Of Medicine have reported the breakthrough discovery of a process to expand production of stem cells used to treat cancer patients. These findings could have implications that extend beyond cancer, including treatments for inborn immunodeficiency and metabolic conditions and autoimmune diseases.

Researchers from the Charles C. Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology and Taiga Biotechnologies, Inc. said they have uncovered the keys to the molecular code that appear to regulate the ability of blood stem cells to reproduce and retain their stem-like characteristics.

The team developed protein products that can be directly administered to blood stem cells to encourage them to multiply without permanent genetic modifications. The technology described in the article has worked with blood stem cells obtained from cord blood, adult bone marrow or peripheral blood from adults.

Taiga Biotechnologies are now in the process of setting up first-in-human clinical trials with the blood stem cell expansion approaches described in the article. The clinical applications for expanded human blood stem cells vary from inborn immunodeficiency conditions, like SCID and sickle cell anemia, to metabolic conditions, like Hurler's disease or Gaucher syndrome.

Autoimmune diseases that could be affected include severe multiple sclerosis and lupus. And the types of cancer that could be treated as a result of this research include leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and other types of solid tumors.

The article is published in PLOS ONE.