The management of risk and investment in cell therapy process development: a case study for neurodegenerative disease

Implementing robotics and artificial intelligence

An automated platform for cell culture combines robotics and artificial intelligence to optimize cell culture protocols and reliably produce specific cell types that could be used for regenerative medicine treatments.

Down-Regulation of p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases/Nuclear Factor Kappa Light Chain Enhancer of Activated B Cells (p38 MAPK/NF-κB) Signaling Pathway Promotes Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells Differentiation into Neural Stem Cells in Healing Neurodegeneration

This study intends to promote bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) differentiation into neural stem cells by down-regulating p38 MAPK/NF-κB to heal neurodegeneration. 26 patients with neurodegenerative diseases were enrolled from the Department of Neurology along with recruitment of 26 other healthy controls followed by analysis of p38 MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathway expression by ELISA. BMSCs were cultured and characterized by flow cytometry. Western blot and qRTPCR measured the p38 MAPK/NF-κB expression in the absence or presence of p38 MAPK/NF-κB inhibitors. p38 MAPK/NF-κB expression in 26 neurodegenerative patients was significantly higher than that of 26 healthy controls. The qRT-PCR and western blot results showed that the neural stem cell-specific proteins expression was increased as days went; after addition of p38 MAPK/NF-κB inhibitor, the expression of related specific genes were significantly decreased. In conclusion, inhibition of the expression of p38 MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathway can heal neurodegeneration by promoting the differentiation of BMSCs into neural stem cells.

Re-engineering the innovator-clinic interface for adoption of advanced therapies

The relationship between regenerative medicine innovators and the clinics that will use their inventions continues to evolve. In the UK, the Advanced Therapy Treatment Centres exemplify this. The agents in the value chain are becoming collaborators in a shared innovation process. This paper proposes a larger role for systems engineering in this change and a cost-based representation of institutional readiness in designing suitable operational models for clinical adoption. The proposed approach places this value in a whole-lifetime cost framework. The current value for the adoption process can then be estimated for comparison with the sum of the adoption costs, the costs of operating at steady state and, if need be, replacement costs at end of life of the innovation.

Standard Operating Procedure for the Good Manufacturing Practice-Compliant Production of Human Endometrial Stem Cells for Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common cause of neurological diseases. Although, there are some effective medications with regulatory approval for treating MS, they are only partially effective and cannot promote repairing of tissue damage directly which occurs in the central nervous system. Therefore, there is an essential need to develop novel therapeutic approaches for neuroprotection or repairing damaged tissue in MS. Accordingly, cell-based therapies as a novel therapeutic strategy have opened a new horizon in treatment of MS. Each setting in cell therapy has potential benefits. Human endometrial stem cells as an invaluable source for cell therapy have introduced treatment for MS. In this respect, good manufacturing practice (GMP) has a pivotal role in clinical production of stem cells. This chapter tries to describe the protocol of GMP-grade endometrial stem cells for treatment of MS.