2-day conference in Cairo (organized by Prof El Beshlawy Ped.Hematologist)

Hi

A two day conference will be held in Cairo- Egypt on the 8th and 9th of May at the Nile Hilton organized by the Prof of Ped. Hematology  Cairo University and Chairman of ETA.

 One of the main speakers will be professor Roberto Gambari who is the scientific director of Laboratory for development of Pharmacological & Pharmacogenomic therapy of thalassemia, Ferrara university in Italy. He will be speaking about Plant Extract and Foetal HB.
He wrote an article in the TIF magazine (January issue) about inducing F HB by some plants extracts.

I will be getting more details about the conference and will let you all know

take care
Manal

More details about the conference

http://www.thalass-eg.com/2007.html
MAIN TOPICS
Gene Therapy
Stem cell Transplantation
Iron overload and iron chelation
Puberty and pregnancy in Thalassemia
Transfusion medicine update
Recent advances in prevention of Thalassemia
Prenatal diagnosis
Plants Extract and Foetal Hemoglobin Production
Foetal Hemoglobin inducers in Thalassemia and sickle cell disease
Sickle cell management

INTERNATIONAL INVITED SPEAKERS

P.S Confirmed international speakers till time of printing.

Prof. Abdallah El Ghafry                      KSA

Prof. Adlette Inati                               Lebanon

Prof. Ali Taher                                   Lebanon

Prof. George Atweh                            USA

Prof. Guido Lucarelli                          Italy

Prof. Jacques Elion                            France

Prof. Maria Cappellini                         Italy

Prof. Marina Kleanthous                     Cyprus

Prof. Pedro Sodani                            Italy

Prof. Roberto Gambari                       Italy

Prof. Salahedin Fattoum                     Tunisia

Prof. Soad K. Al Jaouni                       KSA

Prof. Stamatoyannopoulos                  USA

Prof. Vincenzo De Santos                    Italy

 

Manal

hi manal,
if only i could get on a plane and be there.  it sounds great.  please let us know of any interesting discussion points to come out of this conference.
regards vic

Hi vic

You are most welcomed, i wish you could come too. Actually i wish that i can meet all of you. i will be there and will update you with everything

Manal

Hi

Yesterday, my hema ( by the way she is the president of the conference) told me that one of the speakers will talk about a new technique that is said to cure thal in the transplantation field. They take the blood of the patient and expose his blood to ''something'' that change the nature of the patients stem cells, then his own blood is then re-transplanted back again. This is not Autologus transplant.

I really don't know any details or this ''something'', but i will let you know all the details as soon as i i have them. Can't wait for this conf to start

Manal

one of the speakers will talk about a new technique that is said to cure thal in the transplantation field. They take the blood of the patient and expose his blood to ''something'' that change the nature of the patients stem cells, then his own blood is then re-transplanted back again.

Is this by any chance retrodifferentiation which is being developed by TriStem in the UK?
http://www.tristemcorp.com/index.htm

We had a thread at our MSN site at

http://groups.msn.com/ThalassemiaPatientsandFriends/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=3478&LastModified=4675558476061856223

Very basically, the technology works by using one's own blood cells which are then  retrodifferentiated " a process during which mature, specialised cells can revert back to a more primitive, immature cell stage. These retrodifferentiated stem cells are then capable of redifferentiating 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."
 
This has the potential to greatly reduce or even eliminate the need for blood transfusions, if it works as hoped.
Because it uses the patient's own cells, there is no problem with rejection and it eliminates any ethical issues, sometimes associated with stem cell therapy.

This is a very exciting direction in treating thal!

Just interested to know,
is this only targetting thal majors or would it be relevant to christian as well who is sickle cell beta thal??

Hi Andy

What you explained is exactly what the hema has told me but she didn't mention names. As soon asi know any details i will let you know.

in the the tristem site, i read this attached study
http://www.thescientificworld.com/headeradmin/upload/2006.01.229.pdf

To my understanding this technique is not a cure but it is one of the techniques by which Hb F can be induced in the body and replace the adult HB by taking one of the white blood cells, retrodifferiniate it and then the generated stem cells will target the gamma genes to produce HbF.
So is this considered a cure?

Does this mean that a thal patient can use his own cord blood as it has ready made  stem cells?


Vic

From the article i can understand that Christian's case is applicable too.

Manal
 

WOW!

Please let me know if you find out more about this treatment and what the possibility is of its use in the near future.   


Sharmin

Andy,

I have just read about the Tristem research.  I am surprised to not have heard about it yet.  If this technique works it would be better than transplants and gene therapy because it does not involve chemotherapy or immunosuppression.  I am suprised that they are not doing more with this research, I am getting very excited about it - do you think that it is promising in the near future Andy?

Sharmin

Thanks for the link Manal.

http://www.thescientificworld.com/headeradmin/upload/2006.01.229.pdf

In conclusion, the single-dose infusion of the autologous RSC into patients with beta-thalassemia major has resulted in a reduction in blood transfusion requirement and improved red blood cell morphology, hemoglobin content, and concentration. Furthermore, the biomarker of iron overload, serum ferritin, fell to a statistically significant level at 6 months postinfusion when compared to baseline. This novel regenerative approach towards ameliorating a genetic disorder, though most probably transitory, is profound and may enhance compliance of young thalassemic patients.

At this point I would call this a treatment and not a cure, but a safe treatment that supplies one with his or her own blood, eliminating transfusion reactions of all sorts. (I also think we should not underestimate the positive psychological effect this would have on patients who finally have their own blood running through their veins). It s very promising and I find it very exciting that this will be the subject of a presentation at the Egyptian conference. It is also very nice that the conference coincides with International Thalassemia Day. 

Hi,

From what I understand, I think it reverts the grown up Stem Cells back to pre mature stage where they produced HbF. This can be helpful to some extent till they grow back and get the nasty switch to HbA production. Remember the genes will remain the same bad ones which will fail after the HbF switch; but nevertheless it will definitely reduce the Transfusion requirement.

However I am still concerned about the quantity of Stem Cells required per session of treatment; after all we were babies when HbF was enough for us while now we need more of that. Will they extract all the stem cells from our bone marrow and convert it every-time

Well, I sure hope that it goes well. Anything beats the fortnightly transfusions and daily desferal even if they last 6 months or so.

Take care, Peace!

Hi

However I am still concerned about the quantity of Stem Cells required per session of treatment; after all we were babies when HbF was enough for us while now we need more of that. Will they extract all the stem cells from our bone marrow and convert it every-time

I thought this happenes once and for all.  I didn't know it was sessions!!!
Anyway, i think it will be good to email them to ask for details

Manal

I agree that this procedure would be wonderful, even if it had to be done periodically - thereby reducing transfusion and chelation requirements.  However, extracting marrow every 6 months (or whatever time period is required) could also be painful and complicated I would imagine.  Hopefully we will all get more information about this soon. 

Vic, I also know a young man who has sickle cell, beta thal.  He is a handsome 14 year old and doing quite well. 


Sharmin

I remember that I once posted about TriStem since my cousin's collegue is one of the doctors on the panel with the Saudi Doctors.

According to my cousin, this technology failed in Pakistani Trials and patients died thus the experiment was banned.

I hope they have more success in Egypt.

Take care, Peace!