Beijing Firm Launches Clinical Trial On Stem Cell Treatment For Diabetes

BEIJING - The chief executive officer of the Beijing-headquartered firm Cellonis says that preliminary results from an ongoing clinical trial in the Chinese capital are a promising sign of the potential for widening use of a stem cell-based treatment for diabetes in the future.

The clinical study, being conducted at a military medical center in Beijing, aims to perfect a stem cell treatment for diabetes that helps the patient reconstruct his or her own natural insulin production, Cellonis head Cindy Hao said during an interview.

Hao said that there is anecdotal evidence that a stem cell-based therapy developed by Cellonis and now being tested in Beijing is helping repair insulin production processes for some of the 30-plus patients currently enrolled in the outfit's clinical trial.

"This is a very early stage clinical study," Hao pointed out. Yet she added "some of the results have been very encouraging."

The founder of Cellonis said that the clinical study includes Chinese patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes between the age of four and 75.

CEO Hao said that the treatment involved the use of autologous adult stem cells derived from the patient's own bone marrow and initially injected into the pancreatic artery, and then into a vein.

So far, some patients appear to have regained the ability to produce their own insulin, and as a consequence have a reduced need for insulin injections.

In one case, a patient appeared to show improvement in a related loss of some kidney functions, she added.

"Almost all of the patients have reported reduced dosages of insulin and/or hypoglycemic agents during the five months" following the three-stage injection of stem cells, she said. "And two patients have been insulin free for five months since the treatment."

In addition, Hao said, some of the patients' secondary complications have been alleviated. In some cases, "diabetic foot, diabetic nephropathy, etcetera have been improved greatly."

The head of Cellonis, based at Beijing Life Science Park, said that the ultimate goal is to help patients regain a life without daily injections and drugs.

The company is currently recruiting more patients in the trial.

"Stem cell therapy is a new treatment for diabetes; many patients are concerned about whether or not it is safe," acknowledged the CEO. Yet with the course of treatment being tested during the current clinical trial, there have been no adverse reactions to date.

Hao hopes to show that stem cell treatments can address the underlying causes of the disease. "It seems that diabetes can never be cured with traditional medicine ... [which] may treat the symptoms of the disease, but never deals with the root cause of the problem."

"However, it is difficult to say whether this is a complete cure because we don't know how long the results can last," she said. "The studies of Cellonis show that our best treated patient has been insulin free for eight months."

China Surge For Stem Cell Leader

In a study published in Regenerative Medicine, researchers at the University of Toronto stated earlier this year that China is speedily evolving into a global power in terms of stem cell research, with the central government stepping up funding and recruiting scientists worldwide in order to catapult the country into the advance ranks of this sector of medicine.

In the past 10 years, China also has raced to provide some of the world's first stem cell treatments, along with gene therapy-based biologics, said the scholars at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health.

"There is no doubt in our minds that China is a rising scientific powerhouse in the field of regenerative medicine," co-author Dominique McMahon said in an earlier interview. "In just under a decade, [Chinese scientists] increased their publications from a mere 37 to a massive 1,116, making them the fifth largest contributor of peer-reviewed academic papers on stem cells in the world."

China has overtaken Canada and Australia as measured by the number of articles published on stem cells in leading international journals, and still aims to narrow the gap with scientists in the top four - the U.S., Germany, Japan and the U.K. Meanwhile, liberal government guidelines are helping Chinese scientists pull ahead in the field of stem cell research (Also see "China Emerging As World Power In Stem Cell Research" - Scrip, 29 Jan, 2010.).

In June of last year, the global head of research for Sanofi-Aventis touched down in Beijing to christen a new joint laboratory on regenerative medicine set up with the Xuanwu Hospital. The laboratory is now working on a stem cell-based treatment for diabetes, according to Alex Zhang, who heads the lab.

Zhang said in an interview that he is now engaged in an array of studies focused on regenerating a healthy pancreas, including one aimed at manipulating stem cells to treat primates with diabetes (Also see "China At Ground Zero In Explosion of New Diabetes Cases; International Federation Now Projects 500 Million Diabetics Worldwide By 2030" - Scrip, 14 Apr, 2010.).

- Kevin Holden ([email protected])