These types of tumors are so invasive that until now there's been no way to get large enough amounts of chemotherapy through the blood-brain barrier. With stem cells researchers now think they've found a way. Ten million neural stem cells with a special enzyme are injected into the brain. The stem cells seek out and attach themselves to the tumors. The patient then takes a pill containing a non-toxic drug that enters the brain. When the drug interacts with the enzyme in the stem cells, it instantaneously creates an active chemotherapy drug. The hope is that chemo will kill the tumors and leave healthy brain tissue alone.
Good work, David! Thank you for checking all of that. Here's an article about another study that admits it uses cells from aborted babies: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ai7QxzgHwETQI found the web site of the clinical trial based on the information in the press release - http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01172964?term=gliomas&lead=city+of+hope&rank=1. It says the stem cells used are "HB1.F3.CD neural stem cells."
I then found this page (http://www.gtcbio.com/userAgenda.aspx?id=159) which has a summary of a talk Aboody was scheduled to give at a recent conference which says that "The HB1.F3.CD clonal NSC line was generated from 15 wk fetal telencephalon by retroviral transducion with v-myc." Telecephalon is a part the brain.
Another study (http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/12/18/5550.full) where Aboody is a co-author describes HB1.F3 as "HB1.F3 is an immortalized human NSC (hNSC) line derived from the human fetal brain (ventricular zone) at 15 weeks of gestation by an amphotropic, replication-incompetent retroviral vector containing v-myc (15 http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/12/18/5550.full#ref-15--18 http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/12/18/5550.full#ref-18)."
I haven't been able to discover if the fetus was aborted or miscarried.
If you read the actual story on CBS' website, they never mention the stem cells are embryonic. Why? Perhaps they want to see if the treatment works, at which time they would proclaim loudly the success of embryonic stem cell treatment?
ReplyDeleteThat's funny. They changed the article. I know it said "embryonic" in that sentence above that I lifted verbatim from the story. Wow! I'll have to dig deeper.
ReplyDeleteI would have thought they would hide the facts until they knew it worked. If anything had gone wrong, few would know. I wonder if CBS thought they were embryonic stem cells and had to make the correction. Hmmmm. Something fishy here.
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ReplyDeleteHere's the transcript of the CBS Evening News broadcast where embryonic stems cells were mentioned: http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100007217&docId=l:1302808591&start=1
ReplyDeleteNot embryonic, but from a 15-week fetus.I don't know if it was spontanious or unnatural abortion. Embryos aren't developed enough to isolate Neural Stem cells. Does anyone know if it's possible to harvest viable Neural Stem cells from a miscarried fetus' brain ?
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