Scientists at Opexa Generate Human Insulin-Producing Islet
Opexa Therapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on autologous cellular therapy applications based on its proprietary stem cell for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and T-cell vaccination technologies for the treatment of congestive heart failure and diabetes. Opexa has developed a monocyte-derived stem cell (MDSC) technology as a novel platform for the in vitro generation of highly specialized cells for potential application in autogenic cell therapy for patients with diseases such as diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. Autologous stem cell transfusion has been successfully used in bone marrow transplant for several years.
Glenn Winner, Ph.D., director molecular biology at Opexa who will present the data at ISSCR, stated, "We have developed a novel process in which we are able to generate pancreatic islet-like clusters that are glucose responsive and have the capacity to maintain glucose homeostasis in vitro for extended periods of time." Dr. Winner continued, "The ability of these pancreatic islet-like cell clusters to synthesize insulin in vitro may lead to an autologous islet cell transplantation therapy for the treatment of diabetes."
Recently Opexa Therapeutics has submitted U.S. patents that provide a method for the isolation and generation of monocyte-derived stem cells from human peripheral blood and for the differentiation of MDSCs into insulin-producing islet-like clusters. The significant advantage of this technology is that it now allows the company to produce a large number of adult stem cells from a patient's blood in a relatively short period of time.
David McWilliams, chief executive officer of Opexa Therapeutics, stated, "Our research on adult human MDSCs differentiation to islet cell clusters in the laboratory is an innovation that may lead to an autologous islet cell cluster transplantation strategy into patients with Type 1 diabetes. The Opexa autologous therapeutic approach using MDSCs or differentiation of MDSCs should be safer and more economical than other approaches."
Background
Over the past year, Opexa Therapeutics' scientists have developed a novel process that utilizes a specific set of conditions in which MDSCs are able to differentiate into insulin-producing islet-like clusters. This process offers several distinct advantages over present adult stem cells technologies for diabetes. One advantage of this technology is the ability to easily isolate stem cells from an individual's circulating monocytes, expand and differentiate them into insulin-producing islet-like cluster and administer them back into the same patient. This autologous approach avoids the problem of transplant rejection and the need for immunosuppressant drugs which are often associated with current transplantation. Currently the generation of insulin-producing cells from Embryonic Stem Cells (ES) or other adult tissue specific stem cells requires long culture times to produce cells that typically produce relatively low levels of insulin. Opexa Therapeutics' technology allows the quick generation of insulin-producing cells in culture that function in a glucose responsive manner and express the expected pancreatic specific gene profiles that are normally observed by human pancreatic islets. Current biochemical studies have also demonstrated that this technology is able to produce islet-like clusters that are able to synthesize and secrete insulin at physiological relevant levels. This is a major breakthrough and key cellular resource for the development of stem cell based therapy for the treatment of diabetes.
About Opexa Therapeutics
Opexa Therapeutics' strategy is to develop and commercialize cell therapies to treat several major disease areas such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and cardiac conditions. Opexa has exclusive license from Baylor College of Medicine for individualized cell therapies and has initiated the FDA Phase IIb clinical trial to evaluate effectiveness in treating MS. The company also holds the exclusive worldwide license for an autologous T cell vaccine for rheumatoid arthritis from the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (SIBS), Chinese Academy of Sciences of the People's Republic of China. The company also holds the exclusive worldwide license from the University of Chicago, through its prime contractor relationship with Argonne National Laboratory, for patents relating to the use of adult pluripotent stem cells derived from patients' own circulating blood. For more information, visit Opexa Therapeutics' website at
www.opexatherapeutics.com.
