Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent fibroblast-like cells found throughout the body and have been found to have self-renewing and multilinear therapeutic potential by providing new cells for tissue repair by replacing damaged cells.
Thought to stimulate repair and control the immune response through an expression of growth factors and other cytokines, MSCs are at low risk of rejection and repair tissue damage through immunomodulation, not by their ability to differentiate.
While MSCs can be isolated from a number of tissue sources, including bone marrow, peripheral blood, adipose (fat) tissue, umbilical cord blood, and umbilical cord tissue (Wharton’s jelly). MSCs derived from the human umbilical cords (UCMSCs) have been found to have significant advantages over MSCs isolated from other sources. These advantages include higher proliferation and self-renewal capacity and multilineage differentiation capability.
Unlike many sources of MSCs, the umbilical cord is considered medical waste, making the collection of UCMSCs noninvasive and eliminating ethical concerns associated with the collection of MSCs from other sources. These UCMSCs have been developed as effective “off-the-shelf” cell therapy for a number of conditions, including autoimmune diseases, and as a treatment for a number of emergency medical conditions.
This Phase 1 clinical study, designed and conducted by Chin et al., intended to determine the safety and efficacy of intravenous allogeneic infusion of UCMSCs in healthy volunteers and to determine the effective dose at which an immunomodulatory effect is observed. The findings of this study are intended to serve as a guideline and benchmark for future CVL-100 clinical research.
Analyzing the results of this clinical study, the authors report that there was no observed complication resulting from the infusion and no significant adverse event in either dosage group in the 6 months of follow-up. These findings led Chin et al. to conclude that UCMSCs infusion was safe among healthy subjects, results that were consistent with other UCMSC treatment-based studies.
The authors also reported that UCMSCs infusion posed no significant adverse effects in patients with type 2 diabetes. Despite the relatively small sample group of this study (11 subjects), the authors reported demonstrating an initial transient proinflammatory effect followed by a significant and prolonged anti-inflammatory effect.
In addition, Chin et al. report found that high-dose (HD) CLV-1000 infusion provided a significant increase in both hemoglobin level and MCV level that falls within the normal range. Biomarker assessment results also indicated that the HD group demonstrated a significant steady increase of cytokine IL-1RA from baseline up until 6 months of posttreatment. This finding is especially important as IL-1RA is a naturally occurring antagonist to the proinflammatory cytokine 1L-1.
The authors conclude that this study clearly demonstrates a difference in immunomodulatory effect between the high-dose and low-dose treatment groups, with the HD group demonstrating a significantly greater reduction of proinflammatory cytokine TNF-α and an increased level of specific anti-inflammatory cytokines within 6 months and in relation to those in the low dose group. Considering this, Chin et al. conclude that a CLV-100 dosage of two million MSCs per kilogram of body weight represents the optimal dose level for overcoming inflammatory conditions by displaying the best improvement in all parameters tested, absence of side effects, and SAEs.
The data collected in this study also suggests that this is the first study to report a significant reduction of globulin observed over the course of the study. This is important because globulin serves an important role in immunity. Additionally, increases in serum globulins are associated with several immune-mediated diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, chronic liver disease, diabetes mellitus, and cancer.
Considering these findings, the authors of this study conclude that high doses of allogeneic MSCs could help exert beneficial effects of repair and healing.
Source: “High Dose of Intravenous Allogeneic Umbilical Cord-Derived ….” https://www.hindawi.com/journals/sci/2020/8877003/.
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