Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp. ("SCT") is pleased to announce that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted U.S. Patent 7,033,995 to the company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Stem Cell Therapeutics Inc. The patent, entitled "Production of Radial Glial Cells", protects novel methods of producing radial glial cells in the brain. The production of radial glial cells in the brain of a patient suffering from a central nervous system (CNS) disease has the potential to be a fundamental technology in the field, key to the successful development of neural stem cell based approaches for the treatment of many CNS diseases. CNS diseases possibly affected by successful implementation of this technology include stroke, acute brain injury, Alzheimer's disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and Parkinson's disease.
"I am pleased by the issuance of this, our second U.S. patent, as it demonstrates the continuing expansion and maturation of our extensive intellectual property portfolio" said Dr. Joseph Tucker, President and CEO of Stem Cell Therapeutics. "We are committed to developing a broad and deep pipeline of potent stem cell based therapies with great potential for the treatment of serious diseases".
The ability to harness the power of a patient's own neural stem cells to regenerate lost brain tissue following stroke or other forms of brain damage represents one of the most extraordinary and powerful potential therapies under development in the neurosciences today. However, one of the major remaining challenges faced in developing such a therapeutic approach lies in inducing newly formed cells to migrate to the site in the brain where regeneration is needed.
During fetal brain development, the role of instructing neurons where to migrate to falls to specialized cells called radial glia, which function like a ladder for neurons to climb on while they migrate to their proper position in the brain. Unfortunately for brain regeneration, radial glial cells are only present in the developing brain and they completely disappear as the brain matures, with the result that there are no radial glial cells found in the adult brain.
The new patent describes methods to cause neural stem cells present in the adult brain to make radial glia. The new radial glial cells act like those found in the developing fetal brain and direct the migration of newly generated neurons out into the deep tissues of the brain.
U.S. Patent 7,033,995 is the second patent to issue to Stem Cell Therapeutics from an intellectual property estate that includes more than 35 pending applications filed worldwide.
About Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp.: Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp. is a biotechnology company focused on the development of its technology platform and intellectual property to selectively induce a patient's own stem cells to proliferate in the brain. SCT's core technology, which includes its lead therapeutic product NTx(TM)-265, has been demonstrated to increase the number of innate adult stem cells that grow in place when this therapeutic approach is applied to test animals. SCT plans to develop this fundamental technology further for specific disease treatments such as stroke and potentially Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.
