Medistem Reports Method of Immunomodulation
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Medistem Laboratories, Inc. has announced the development of a method of immune response modification utilizing a genetic reprogramming technology involving RNA interference, committed to the ethical development of next-generation medical therapies from non-controversial adult stem cell sources.
The recently published research may enable the development of new therapies to treat immune system disorders such as diabetes, arthritis and others.
In an article published in the January 2006 issue of the "Journal of Translational Medicine," Medistem scientists demonstrated the efficacy of clinically available iodinized oil mixtures combined with artificially synthesized double-stranded RNA molecules to selectively target immune responses recognizing specific proteins.
The findings presented in this publication have potential implications for clinical situations where suppression of a specific harmful immune response is desired, without globally blocking the overall function of the body's immune system.
Thomas Ichim, Ph.D., a Medistem consultant who is lead author of the publication, stated, "Antigen-specific immunomodulation offers the ability to selectively stop specific immune responses that harm the body while maintaining normal anti-pathogen immunity, thus offering new hope to victims of autoimmune diseases such as diabetes, arthritis and multiple sclerosis."
"This paper marks an important step for Medistem in achieving this goal in a non-toxic and clinically applicable manner."
Neil Riordan, Ph.D., President and CEO of Medistem, added, "The high degree of excitement surrounding the publication of this paper demonstrates the acceptance and support of the international scientific community in terms of our approaches to developing novel therapeutics."
Riordan continued, "At Medistem we take a multifactorial approach towards accelerating therapeutic solutions."
"The present finding of a new method of selectively 'tricking' the immune system to ignore certain proteins will not only advance the field of autoimmune diseases, but may open the door for donor mismatch stem cell transplants without the problem of rejection."
