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Hello ,
Bizarre and exciting patent got issued last week. #7,517,686 covers a methodology for inducing monocyte dedifferentiation into a cell that is apparently capable of differentiating into hepatocytes, neurons and islets. This is a continuation of a previous patent by Blasticon, #7,138,275.
Now despite us thinking that monocytes dedifferentiating into stem cells is weird, there is another company working in this area, called Opexa, which has IP licensed from an independent group. So it will be very interesting to see what happens. Conceptually we really really hope that indeed monocytes can be dedifferentiated...it would make all of our lives easier!! On this note, there is another set of patents, some issued, by the company Tristem, covering the use of antibodies to dedifferentiate a peripheral blood sample into cells expressing CD34. They even have a clinical trial on this.
Why are we skeptical? Well a long time ago an Indian company approached us claiming to have a solution that induces dedifferentiation of blood cells. We met the company at BIO, so I figured there may be at least a shred of legitimacy. When I asked to see data, they showed me in real time the expansion of cell shape after adding the compound to a blood sample. The "compound" was a hypotonic solution and the "cell transformation" was the erythrocyte membranes expanding !!! Believe it or not the company actually raised some money for this !! Obviously we are not stating that dedifferentiation is a crazy field. It is not, it is a field that is the most exciting to us and should be to all humanity. Our only point is that in today's society claims of dedifferentiation can, and should be tested, very quickly, without preconcieved notions, since such technology would save the lives of millions.
Another patent of interest was issued, #7,517,521, which teaches methods of collecting neuroepithelial stem cells from fetal starting material. Invitrogen's Mahendra Rao is one of the inventors.
In the news a neat paper was published demonstrating that glioma stem cells act more like glioma stem cells when cultured under hypoxia.
This patent is related to #7,138,275, which covers the composition of matter of a "A dedifferentiated, programmable cell of human monocytic origin, wherein said dedifferentiated, programmable cell of human monocytic origin expresses a CD14 antigen, a CD90 antigen, and a CD123... Tampa, FL - We have previously discussed the importance of mimicking the physiological environment when studying different types of stem cells, so why would this not be true also for tumor stem cells? Specifically, it is known that hematopoietic stem cells reside in the hypoxic niche of the bone marrow. This can also be... Ask a question OR leave your comments.
Dedifferentiated, programmable stem cells of monocytic origin, and their production and use
Low Oxygen Tension for Cancer Stem Cells: Keeping it Real
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