International Stem Cell Corp. (ISCO) to Present Final Safety and Efficacy Results from Parkinson’s Disease Program at AAN Annual Meeting
Today before the opening bell, International Stem Cell Corp., a California-based biotechnology company developing novel stem cell based therapies and biomedical products, announced that it will be giving a platform presentation on its preclinical studies in Parkinson’s at the 2015 American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. Ruslan Semechkin, Ph.D., ISCO’s chief scientific officer, will discuss the data at the “Parkinson’s Disease” scientific session (s48.007), on Thursday, April 23rd at 4:45 pm in a talk entitled “Neural Stem Cell Based Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease.”
“These animal studies strongly suggest that the transplantation of human parthenogenetic neural stem cells (hpNSCs), for the treatment of Parkinson’s will be efficacious, safe and well tolerated,” stated Ruslan Semechkin, Ph.D. “The data further elucidate our platform and help solidify expectations for our planned Phase 1/2a studies in humans.”
The data presented are from two safety studies, where human parthenogenetic neural stem cells (hpNSC) were transplanted into the brains of healthy animals, and a proof-of-principle study where the cells were transplanted into animals with induced Parkinson’s disease symptoms. The studies show that hpNSCs migrated to the injured brain area, increased dopamine levels, protected and recovered neurons and improved the motor function. Additionally, at the conclusion of the twelve month non-human primate safety study, no evidence of teratoma formation or ectopic tissue was found in any animals that received the human cell transplants.
ISCO has built a comprehensive preclinical safety dataset from a series of GLP and non-GLP studies on hpNSC. The Company has submitted a CTX application to the Australian regulatory authorities and plans to begin the phase 1/2a clinical study within the next few months.
For those not familiar with them, hpNSCs are a novel therapeutic cellular product derived from International Stem Cell Corporation’s proprietary human pluripotent stem cells. Neural stem cells work to repair the brain in several ways. The cells are attracted to the site of injury and in response to signals released by the damaged tissue release a range of molecules that reduce inflammation and trigger the recovery process. Neural stem cells also have the ability to generate new cells to replace those that are either dead or dying enabling the formation of new tissue. In this way the hpNSCs act as coordinators of all the various activities necessary to recover brain function.
To learn more about International Stem Cell Corp. and its technologies, visit www.internationalstemcell.com
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