cystine

Two rare diseases, two pieces of good news

/ Kevin McCormack / 1 Comment
Dr. Stephanie Cherqui

Last week saw a flurry of really encouraging reports from projects that CIRM has supported. We blogged about two of them last Wednesday, but here’s another two programs showing promising results.

UC San Diego researcher Dr. Stephanie Cherqui is running a CIRM-funded clinical trial for cystinosis. This is a condition where patients lack the ability to clear an amino acid called cystine from their cells. As the cystine builds up it can lead to multi-organ failure affecting the kidneys, eyes, thyroid, muscle, and pancreas.

Dr. Cherqui uses the patient’s own blood stem cells, that have been genetically corrected in the lab to remove the defective gene that causes the problem. It’s hoped these new cells will help reduce the cystine buildup.

The data presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Cell and Gene Therapy (ASCGT) focused on the first patient treated with this approach. Six months after being treated the patient is showing positive trends in kidney function. His glomerular filtration rate (a measure of how well the kidneys are working) has risen from 38 (considered a sign of moderate to severe loss of kidney function) to 52 (mild loss of kidney function). In addition, he has not had to take the medication he previously needed to control the disorder, nor has he experienced any serious side effects from the therapy.

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Dr. Linda Marban of Capricor

Capricor Therapeutics also had some positive news about its therapy for people with Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). This is a progressive genetic disorder that slowly destroys the muscles. It affects mostly boys. By their teens many are unable to walk, and most die of heart or lung failure in their 20’s. 

Capricor is using a therapy called CAP-1002, using cells derived from heart stem cells, in the HOPE-2 clinical trial.

In a news release Capricor said 12-month data from the trial showed improvements in heart function, lung function and upper body strength. In contrast, a placebo control group that didn’t get the CAP-1002 treatment saw their condition deteriorate.

Craig McDonald, M.D., the lead investigator on the study, says these results are really encouraging.  “I am incredibly pleased with the outcome of the HOPE-2 trial which demonstrated clinically relevant benefits of CAP-1002 which resulted in measurable improvements in upper limb, cardiac and respiratory function. This is the first clinical trial which shows benefit to patients in advanced stages of DMD for which treatment options are limited.”

You can read the story of Caleb Sizemore, one of the patients treated in the CIRM-funded portion of this trial.

CIRM Board Approves New Clinical Trial for Rare Childhood Disease

/ Yimy Villa / Leave a comment

Today the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) approved a grant of almost $12 million to Dr. Stephanie Cherqui at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) to conduct a clinical trial for treatment of cystinosis.

This award brings the total number of CIRM funded clinical trials to 55. 

Cystinosis is a rare disease that primarily affects children and young adults, and leads to premature death, usually in early adulthood.  Patients inherit defective copies of a gene called CTNS, which results in abnormal accumulation of an amino acid called cystine in all cells of the body.  This buildup of cystine can lead to multi-organ failure, with some of earliest and most pronounced effects on the kidneys, eyes, thyroid, muscle, and pancreas.  Many patients suffer end-stage kidney failure and severe vision defects in childhood, and as they get older, they are at increased risk for heart disease, diabetes, bone defects, and neuromuscular defects.  There is currently a drug treatment for cystinosis, but it only delays the progression of the disease, has severe side effects and is expensive.

Dr. Cherqui’s clinical trial will use a gene therapy approach to modify a patient’s own blood stem cells with a functional version of the defective CTNS gene. Based on pre-clinical data, the approach is to reintroduce the corrected stem cells into the patient to give rise to blood cells that will reduce cystine buildup in affected tissues.  

Because this is the first time this approach has been tested in patients, the primary goal of the clinical trial is to see if the treatment is safe.  In addition, patients will be monitored for improvements in the symptoms of their disease.  This award is in collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles which will handle the manufacturing of the therapy.

CIRM has also funded the preclinical work for this study, which involved completing the testing needed to apply to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for permission to start a clinical trial in people.

“CIRM has funded 24 clinical stage programs utilizing cell and gene medicine approaches to date,” says Maria T. Millan, M.D., the President and CEO of CIRM.  “This project continues to broaden the scope of unmet medical need we can impact with these types of approaches.”