Fred Hutchinson to Investigate Chemokine's Compound in Repopulating Blood Stem Cells

Chemokine Therapeutics Corp. has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle to study the Company's hematological support compound, CTCE-0214.

Researchers at the Hutchinson Center will study the benefits of CTCE-0214, an agonist of the chemokine receptor CXCR4, in a series of preclinical studies investigating the drug's ability to accelerate the repopulation of stem cells to the bone marrow from human umbilical cord blood.

In addition to determining the quantity of stem cell expansion, the researchers will also examine the level of engraftment of these cells in pre-clinical transplant model.

The planned studies would further establish the effects of the addition of CTCE-0214 to the currently available techniques and explore the potential use in a future human clinical setting.

Dr. Hassan Salari, Chairman and CEO of Chemokine Therapeutics, noted, "We are very proud to be partnering with the Hutchinson Center to combine Chemokine's extensive preclinical and clinical expertise with CTCE-0214 and the Hutchinson Center's knowledge and clinical expertise in advanced and highly specialized medical research."

"This important study will permit us to evaluate the potentially profound impact that CTCE-0214 could have on developing treatments for degenerative diseases using stem cell therapies."

Recently in the journal Stem Cells, an article entitled: "Small Peptide Analogue of SDF-1(alpha) Supports Survival of Cord Blood CD34+ Cells in Synergy with Other Cytokines and Enhances Their Ex Vivo Expansion and Engraftment in Non obese Diabetic/Severe Combined Immunodeficient Mice," demonstrated that the Company's second lead product CTCE-0214 significantly multiplied the number of stem cells and related progenitor cell subsets from human cord blood through a process called ex-vivo expansion and improved engraftment in a rodent model.

CTCE-0214 demonstrated the ability to significantly increase the expansion of all cell subsets studied, including important cell subtypes called CFU-GEMM and SCID- repopulating cells which have been identified as important stem cells for clinical use.

Improved methods to increase the number of the most primitive stem cells are expected to expand the potential therapeutic uses of cord blood in regenerative medicine.