By next May..

Hello everyone

Remember Dr. Ilham Salah who undergoes the retrodifferination therapy. I knew from my hematologist that 6 thal patients have travelled to her and went through this process and they are doing fine. Actually the hematologist does not have any more details about the cases right now, but what is confirmed is that she has invited Dr. Ilham to the next International Egyptian conference for thalassemia that will be held by the mid of May and she will arrange doing with her some more cases. Actually i know that this infromation are still not complete but i will keep you updated if i knew anything else. I will also make sure to meet Dr. Ilham in the conference.

By the way , many months ago i emailed Dr. Ilham some important questions about this process but actually she never answered me back so i hope she will in the coming conference.

I will keep you updated

Manal

Thanks Manal,

Treatments such as the one you mentioned - and the Hemaquest study give us so much hope.  I can barely imagine life free from transfusions and desferal. 

Sharmin

Thanks Manal for sharing this information. 

Love
Dimple

Thanks Manal,

I hope you catch up with her and get all the answers that we all are waiting for about the TriStem project.

Hi,

Just found this,

From  http://www.hsipl.com/pages/solutions_retro_advantages.html

WHAT IS RETRODIFFERENTIATION ?

Retrodifferentiation is a process during which mature, specialised cells can revert back to a more primitive, immature cell stage. This is achieved by introducing an agent, i.e. a CR3/43 murrain monoclonal antibody, to a particular cell surface receptor. These retrodifferentiated stem cells are then capable of re-differentiating into a variety of cell types. Therefore, the process itself has the potential to reconstitute an entire human tissue such as blood, neurones, muscle etc.

Advantages of Tristem’s Retrodifferentiation Procedure
Cells grown in a laboratory for use on patients allow treatments for a vast variety of conditions such as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes spinal cord damage and various cancers including leukaemia.

Current harvesting techniques include the extraction of stem cells from human embryos and foetuses. TriStem's retrodifferentiation process does not require any human embryos or foetuses and, therefore, bypasses sensitive ethical and related legal issues.

The use of a patient's own blood cells ensures a perfect tissue match and removes the need for a donor. The use of material from another human can run the risk of immune system rejection. The retrodifferentiation process eliminates this risk as all the retrodifferentiated stem cells come from the patient, who effectively acts as his or her own donor.

The use of adult cells to create stem cells is less expensive and less time consuming than existing harvesting techniques. In addition, the new process produces huge numbers of stem cells when compared with existing technologies.

The method of obtaining the retrodifferentiated stem cells does not involve invasive surgical procedures. The starting material can be blood, the most accessible tissue in the body, and which is simple to extract through a short venepuncture procedure.
 
Frequently Asked Questions
 What is the difference between TriStem’s stem cell technology and other currently available stem cell technologies?
 You don't need a donor as the patient is his/her own donor (The use of material from another human can run the risk of immune system rejection). The stem cells can be produced in large quantities relatively cheaply and the method avoids current ethical problems. No invasive surgical procedure or anaesthetic is required.
 Retrodifferentiation, sounds funky, what does it mean with respect to pluripotent stem cells?
 Essentially, the technology we are proposing has the ability to reprogramme mature adult blood cells to a more primitive stage (i.e. pluripotent stem cell). This stem cell is then able to develop along one of several different pathways into a variety of tissue types (e.g. muscle, cartilage, neurons).

 Are you sure what you have isolated is really pluripotent stem cells and how?
 Yes, because they have been characterized using standard assay methods such as clonal assay, flow cytometry, long-term culture and molecular biological techniques e.g. PCR, RT-PCR and Southern blotting.

 How long does it take to generate the pluripotent stem cells?
 Pluripotent stem cells are generated within hours of collecting and processing the blood samples.

 Can the technology be applied to both healthy and leukaemic patients to source stem cells?
 Yes.

 What are the implications and potential of the technology in terms of its therapeutic use?
 Many diseases (e.g. Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, heart, diabetes) result from the dysfunction of a single cell type. With TriStem's technology, the introduction of healthy cells of a particular type in large quantities into a patient could potentially restore a lost or compromised function. In addition, the retrodifferentiation process can also help us to understand better, and possibly treat, cancer and AIDS.

 Is this technological process like cloning/genetic engineering?
 No. It does not involve the use of human embryos or foetal tissue nor does it involve any genetic manipulation.

 How long will it be before your technology is available to patients?
 Retrodifferentiated Stem Cell Therapy to treat various disorders is available now at Park Lane Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan.   Very shortly there will be another location opened in the Caribbean. Please call or send an e-mail about opening date of the second facility.

 Have you been able to produce neural stem cells?
 Yes. Images of neural stem cells produced from retrodifferentiation can be found on TriStem’s website. www.tristemcorp.com

 Can TriStem's technology be used to produce blood?
 Yes. The technology can generate large numbers of erythroid progenitors that can develop into red blood cells in liquid culture. Similarly, other specialised cell types that constitute blood and that are also important in transfusion medicine, such as platelets, can be produced in large quantities.

 Who is the blood donor?
 Patients donate their own blood, which will be converted to stem cells. Alternatively, a compatible donor can be used.

 Has stem cell therapy been used to treat 'liquid' cancers such as leukaemia?
 Yes. Autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplants have been used to treat leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma, including some solid tumours such as breast and ovarian cancers.

 What is the risk of using a leukaemia patient's own blood cells to create stem cells?
 There is no conceivable additional risk to using the patient's own blood cells. Any risk of immune rejection is nullified because of a perfect tissue match. In certain cases, an allogeneic stem cell transplant is preferred to deliberately mount an immune response against host tumour cells. This latter process is facilitated by TriStem's technology because the technology enables the production of stem cells from healthy blood donors without the need for invasive surgical procedures or anaesthesia. Consequently, this technology is donor-friendly, and increases the options available for the transplant recipient to locate a viable donor in a relatively short period of time.

 How can you control conversion from stem cell to a specific mature cell type?
 Stem cells are incubated in a rigorously controlled environment that determines the redifferentiation pathway they follow. Stem cells may become new cell types ('transdifferentiation') or they may mature along their original pathway (re-ontogeny). The technology also exists to identify the type of cell resulting from the differentiation of stem cells in the laboratory.

ZAINI.

Thanks for sharing Zaini!

Thanks Manal,

Treatments such as the one you mentioned - and the Hemaquest study give us so much hope.  I can barely imagine life free from transfusions and desferal. 

Sharmin

Can you please let me know more about this therapy.

Hi Nannu

You can read about this treatment in the following link

http://www.thalassemiapatientsandfriends.com/index.php?topic=966.0

Please feel free to ask anything

Manal