Tuesday, April 29, 2014

International Stem Cell Corp. (ISCO) Study Reveals Promising Developments

International Stem Cell Corp. announced today that behavioral improvements have been observed after six months in their pre-clinical non-human primate (NHP) study of Parkinson’s disease (PD). ISCO is a biotechnology company developing novel stem cell-based therapies and biomedical products and is based in Carlsbad, California. The detailed behavioral data is slated to be presented at the 66th American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.

“It is encouraging to see these behavioral scores trending in the right direction as it means that the implanted cells may be having a positive impact on the disease symptoms,” said Professor D. Eugene Redmond Jr. MD, of Yale University Medical School and the study’s supervisor. “The rating scores are equivalent to components of the UPDRS which is widely used in research to evaluate Parkinson’s patients. The Parkison’s score is known to correlate very highly with brain dopamine concentrations.”

The study, consisting of 18 primates, are exposed to the neurotoxin, MPTP, divided into three cohorts, a sham treated group and two treatment groups receiving different doses of human neural stem cells (hPNSC) derived from ISCO’s proprietary parthenogenetic stem cell line. All groups had matching levels of parkinsonism and functional disability prior to the cell injections. Six months of data showed that the healthy behavior scores of the treatment group increased 170% while the placebo group increased by 58%. In addition, one treatment group showed a major improvement in the main Parkinson’s rating score of 63% (p < 0.05) while the control group exhibited no significant improvements.

According to the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, an estimated seven to 10 million people worldwide live with PD, with as many as one million of those in the United States alone, more than the combined total of people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, muscular distrophy, and Lou Gehrig's disease. The total direct and indirect cost of Parkinson's disease is estimated to be nearly $25 billion per year in the United States alone.

Dr. Ruslan Semechkin ISCO's Chief Scientific Officer, commented: "The results of this interim analysis are very promising. This study provides information about how our human neural stem cells, derived from our parthenogenetic stem cells, behave in a diseased brain and how the diseased tissue responds and is a critical part of our planned IND submission."

For more information on the company, visit www.internationalstemcell.com

About QualityStocks

QualityStocks is committed to connecting subscribers with companies that have huge potential to succeed in the short and long-term future. We offer several ways for investors to find, evaluate, and learn more about investing in these companies.

Sign up for “The QualityStocks Daily Newsletter” at www.QualityStocks.net

The Quality Stocks Daily Blog http://blog.qualitystocks.net

The Quality Stocks Daily Videos http://videocharts.qualitystocks.net

 The Quality Stocks “Ones to Watch” http://gotstocks.qualitystocks.net


Please see disclaimer on the QualityStocks website: http://disclaimer.qualitystocks.net

No comments: