What Are the Pros and Cons of a Stem Cell Transplant for Leukemia?

Stem cell transplantation is an advanced medical technology, which brings hope for the treatment of some incurable diseases. Stem cell transplantation is a method of transplanting healthy stem cells into a patient to repair or replace damaged cells or tissues, thereby achieving the goal of healing. Stem cell transplantation has a wide range of treatments, and can generally treat neurological diseases, immune system diseases, and other medical and surgical diseases. Stem cells are called "universal cells" in the medical community, and they can differentiate into a variety of functional cells or tissues. Because stem cells cultivated in the APSC pluripotent cell laboratory have "infinite" proliferation, multi-directional differentiation potential, and have characteristics of hematopoietic support, immune regulation, and self-replication.

Stem cell transplantation

It works on the same principle as the miniaturized traditional Chinese medicine penetration therapy, so the two have complementary effects.

The Ministry of Health issued the "Notice on Carrying Out Stem Cell Clinical Research and Application of Self-examination and Self-correction", and suspended the ongoing unapproved stem cell clinical research and application projects

At the beginning of last year, a "Stem Cell Black Market" article revealed that at present, stem cell transplantation is still in clinical trials globally. However, this therapy has been used in large-scale clinical treatment in some hospitals in China, and patients are not aware of the possible risks. ^[1]

After nearly a year of controversy, the Ministry of Health has taken substantial action to intervene in the abuse of stem cell clinical trials. On January 6th, the Ministry of Health issued the "Notice on the Development of Stem Cell Clinical Research and Application of Self-examination and Self-correction", requiring provincial health administrative departments to carefully clean up ongoing stem cell clinical research and application projects and stop unsanitary Stem cell clinical research and application projects approved by the Ministry and the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA).

Stem cell transplantation for chaotic clusters

The so-called stem cell is an under-differentiated and immature cell that has the potential to regenerate into various tissues and organs and human cells. Based on this, the medical community envisages the use of stem cell transplantation to treat diseases such as tissue and organ defects or dysfunction, including the treatment of diabetes.

According to reporters, more and more hospitals and clinics in major cities in China are providing patients with stem cell treatments for cancer, Alzheimer's disease and spinal cord injury. However, there is little rigorous scientific evidence to support this treatment. Some doctors pointed out to the media that many patients did not improve significantly after receiving stem cell treatment, and some patients even died.

In fact, on a global scale, stem cell transplantation is still in clinical trials and has only been proven effective for individual diseases such as leukemia, burns and bone repair, and the risks are still unknown. There are still a lot of technical problems to be solved if stem cell transplantation is to be universally used in clinical practice.

According to estimates from foreign research institutions, China invests about $ 320 million annually in stem cell research. Although the majority of stem cell treatment options are provided in public hospitals, unapproved stem cell treatment programs are still widespread. Of particular concern is that the industry has long lacked a global regulatory system.

With the promising prospect of stem cell therapy, in China, stem cell therapy and various stem cell banks are becoming increasingly popular. In 2009, the Ministry of Health classified stem cell technology as a "third category of medical technology" and considered it "involving major ethical issues, safety and effectiveness need to be further verified by standardized clinical trial research"; and required that if this technology be used Clinical treatment must be approved by the Ministry of Health.

In recent years, although stem cell transplantation has formed a booming supply and demand clinical treatment market in China, medical institutions of different sizes have also participated in it. Although the Ministry of Health requires this technology to be approved for clinical treatment, so far, except for hematopoietic stem cell treatment, Except for hematological diseases, no stem cell treatment has been accepted and reviewed by any medical institution. Its expensive stem cell treatment also bypasses clinical supervision and is carried out in the name of "clinical research."

From the source and preparation of cells to the marketing and treatment of patients, the current stem cell therapy has formed a complete industrial chain-the commonly used source of allogeneic stem cells is umbilical cord blood. There are specialized companies responsible for establishing laboratories and specializing in them. Cell culture, preparation, and specialized personnel are responsible for collecting cord blood, and each link is profitable.

Stem cell transplant treatment stopped

According to the reporter's understanding, the Ministry of Health and SFDA will start the clinical research and application of stem cell self-examination and self-correction work to rectify various types of medical institutions and related research units engaged in clinical research and application of stem cells at various levels throughout the country. Prior to July 1, this year, no applications for stem cell applications will be accepted.

At the same time, according to the plan of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Health and SFDA decided to carry out a one-year clinical research and application of stem cell rectification work. The work will be divided into stages of self-inspection and self-correction, re-certification and standardized management.

The Ministry of Health has issued a notice requiring institutions engaged in clinical research and application of stem cells to carry out self-examination and self-correction work in accordance with the "Good Clinical Drug Quality Management Standards" and "Medical Technology Clinical Application Management Methods" Bone marrow transplantation), carefully summarized the ongoing and ongoing stem cell clinical research and application activities, truthfully report the survey content, and submit it to the provincial stem cell clinical research and application rectification working group before January 31 this year.

In addition, in the self-examination and self-correction work, we will focus on rectifying the units that have not truthfully reported the clinical research and application of stem cells, and continued to carry out unapproved stem cell clinical research and application projects. The approved clinical trials of stem cell products shall be carried out in strict accordance with the requirements of clinical trial approvals and the "Good Manufacturing Practices for Drug Clinical Trials," and shall not change clinical trial schemes at will, nor shall they be converted into chargeable projects of medical institutions on their own.

According to relevant experts, "China's clinical research on medical technology and the detailed regulations of medical technology supervision still have blank areas. The specific operational measures are mainly found after problems are reported and approved. Therefore, it is relatively passive. In clinical trials of new medical technologies, the state should formulate clear regulatory norms and increase supervision of weak links in clinical research of drugs. "

There are six approaches to stem cell transplantation treatment: interventional approach, local implantation, venous approach, lumbar puncture approach, stereotactic intracranial stem cell transplantation on the head, and spinal cord stem cell transplantation under CT guidance. It can be roughly divided into 4 types, as follows:

1. Direct injection of the lesion is multi-point injection along the direction of the blood vessels of the lower limb gastrocnemius muscle. During the treatment, the treatment effect by direct injection of the diseased area is remarkable.

2. Vascular interventional therapy is a treatment method used by stem cells to treat diseases. Its characteristics are: fewer side effects and complications; less damage, safe and easy to implement; accurate positioning, fast and effective efficacy. Its features such as no need for surgery, minimal trauma, and fast recovery are very popular.

3. Intravenous infusion therapy is an interventional method for stem cell disease treatment. Intravenous therapy can also be used for treatments such as dementia, Parkinson's disease, anti-aging, and so on. Shake the cell fluid evenly to avoid cell attachment.

4. Stem cell body cavity infusion therapy is a characteristic treatment technique for stem cell treatment of diseases.

1. Principles of stem cell transplantation for kidney disease:

Because stem cells have "infinite" proliferation, multi-directional differentiation potential, hematopoietic support, immune regulation, and self-replication. It can be used as an ideal "seed" cell for tissue and organ damage repair caused by lesions. In recent years, basic research has found that stem cells can differentiate into renal intrinsic cells, renal parenchymal cells, etc., so stem cell transplantation has a good repair and reconstruction effect on kidney function. It has the same principle of action as miniaturized traditional Chinese medicine infiltration therapy, so the two have complementary effects. Role.

2. Characteristics and advantages of stem cell treatment of kidney disease:

It has strong proliferation ability and multi-directional differentiation potential, can proliferate and differentiate and produce a large number of offspring.

Through the interaction between cells and the production of cytokines, it inhibits the proliferation of T cells and their immune response, thereby exerting the function of immune reconstruction.

It is convenient to source, easy to isolate, culture, expand and purify, and still has the characteristics of stem cells after multiple passages of amplification.

Low immunogenicity. Because the cells are in a primitive state and cannot be easily identified, there is no immune rejection and there is no blood type matching problem.

It is precisely because of these immunological characteristics and advantages that stem cells have, they have broad clinical application prospects in the treatment of nephropathy.

Stem cell transplantation treats liver cirrhosis by extracting umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells. After standard extraction, differentiation, and isolation of stem cells, visual minimally invasive operations are performed, and then the femoral artery is inserted into the liver, thereby replacing degeneration, injury, and genetic defects. Or cells that are damaged by autoimmunity, restore liver function, and reach the purpose of treating liver cirrhosis and liver ascites!

Stem cell transplantation for treating cerebral palsy is to supplement the defective neurons with post-differentiated neurons, and promote the differentiation and function of neural stem cells in children's brain tissue, restore the normal growth and development of cerebral nerves, improve cerebral cognitive dysfunction, and cause cerebral palsy. Further rehabilitation in children provides more opportunities and has become the most effective treatment available today. And the younger the age, the stronger the recompensation ability, the greater the possibility of treatment. If you receive a standardized systematic rehabilitation exercise after neural stem cell transplantation, it will promote the growth and repair of the transplanted neural stem cells, and the effect will be more ideal.

At home and abroad, the most commonly used methods of SCI are surgery, medication, rehabilitation training, etc., but these methods cannot fundamentally solve the problem of neuron regeneration. Difficulties in the treatment of spinal cord injury: how to regenerate the defective neurons and how to restore the conductive function of functional axons.

Neural stemcells, NSCs are one of the most important advances in the field of neurobiology at the end of the 20th century.Because of their two basic characteristics of self-renewal and multi-differentiation potential, as well as the advantages of migration function and good tissue fusion, they have become cell transplantation for nerve treatment. Good transplant materials for systemic diseases provide a new method for the treatment of spinal cord injury.

After spinal cord injury, the transplanted neural stem cells can migrate to the injury site, survive and proliferate, differentiate into neurons or astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, and regenerate neural axons and myelin sheaths. Functional synaptic connection; forming residual myelinated nerve fibers and new nerve fibers to form new myelin sheaths, maintaining the integrity of nerve fiber functions and restoring damaged nerve functions; and assisting in systematic rehabilitation exercises to promote The growth and repair of transplanted neural stem cells greatly reduce the occurrence of sequelae, improve the status of sequelae, and improve the quality of life of patients.

Timing of transplantation of neural stem cells for stem cell treatment of spinal cord injury: Okano et al. Believe that in the acute stage of transplantation, a large number of free radicals and excitatory amino acids and other substances exist, the number of neural stem cells survives and differentiates, and the number of recanalized nerve fibers is small. If the recovery period is chosen, there may be a large number of surviving cells, but the glial scars in the injured area have formed a small number of nerve fibers that lead to recanalization, so animal experiments and clinical medical records prove that the best time to transplant is generally after the injury Week to 2 months.