Company Press Release
Diacrin to Present New Transplant Developments at Annual Society for
Neuroscience Meeting
CHARLESTOWN, Mass., Nov. 6, 1998 /PRNewswire/ -- Diacrin, Inc. (Nasdaq:
DCRN - news) announced today that its scientists
will present new research at the Society for Neuroscience's annual
meeting in Los Angeles from Nov. 7-12, demonstrating the
survival and function of porcine neural cell transplants into the spinal
cord. The meeting is being hosted by the world's largest
neuroscience organization.
Results from three separate studies show the ability of porcine, or pig,
neural cells to survive long-term in animal models. In
these models, Diacrin found that implanted neurons were able to
integrate and send appropriate signals to the brain in various
behavioral and biochemical analyses.
``The results from these preliminary studies suggest that fetal porcine
neurons may be appropriate for repopulation of lost
neurons in human spinal neuropathological diseases,'' said Dr. Julie
Siegan, the Diacrin scientist who will present the data.
Diacrin's scientific team evaluated the survival of transplanted porcine
neurons in an intact rat spinal cord. The transplanted cells
were from the lateral ganglionic eminence (LGE) area of the fetal
porcine brain. LGE cells secrete an inhibitory chemical
message called gamma-amino butyric acid, or GABA, which is capable of
suppressing chronic pain transmission. While in the
normal spinal cord there are GABA producing cells, those cells are often
dead or dying in chronic pain patients. The loss of
GABA producing cells can exacerbate chronic pain. Therefore
transplantation of these cells may suppress intractable pain.
``The loss of spinal cord neurons due to cell death from injury or
disease inhibits sensory and motor functions,'' said Thomas H.
Fraser, Ph.D, President and CEO of Diacrin. ``At the cellular level,
spinal cord neuron death alters the balance of excitatory
and inhibitory messages sent by neurons. This balance may be restored by
neural cell transplantation.''
Diacrin, which has pioneered cell transplant technology to treat
debilitating and fatal diseases characterized by cellular
dysfunction or cell death, will additionally present its findings using
``masked'' cells to prevent rejection of the transplanted
neurons. Masking is a proprietary immunomodulation technology used to
avoid the need for immunosuppressant drugs, while
still protecting transplanted grafts from rejection as a result of the
body's normal immune response.
The survival of masked porcine transplanted neurons was compared to the
survival of transplanted cells in animals treated with
an immunosuppressive drug. Here, 32 rats that received intraspinal
transplants of porcine LGE cells were treated daily with
immunosuppressants to prevent rejection, and 16 rats were transplanted
with masked LGE cells and received no
immunosuppressants. Animals were evaluated weekly for normal pain
sensation and motor ability, and all displayed normal
behavior. Graft survival in the study was 81% for animals that received
masked pretreated cells, compared to 72% that
received the immunosuppressive drug.
``The data from the experiment shows that the transplanted GABA
producing porcine neurons are able to survive long term in a
host's spinal cord and that Diacrin's proprietary masking technology is
equivalent to standard immunosuppression in preventing
immune rejection of these neurons,'' Dr. Fraser said.
The ability of LGE porcine implanted neurons to attenuate persistent
pain was also evaluated in the rat model. All rats in the
experiment received surgical injuries, producing chronic pain. A week
following pain induction, animals received either a
transplant of LGE porcine cells into the spinal cord or an equal value
of saline solution. As confirmed by behavioral tests, the
LGE transplanted rats were able to attenuate the pain at 1-2 weeks
following transplantation.
In another model, scientists at Diacrin were able to demonstrate that
functional recovery may be achieved in spinal cord injuries
by porcine cell transplantation. In this experiment, fetal porcine
spinal cord cell transplantation was assessed in spinal cord
injured rats. Such injury often causes paralysis below the area of
damage. Neurons die initially as a consequence of trauma and
later due to reduction in blood flow, spinal cord swelling and decreased
oxygen supply. In behavioral tests, porcine grafted rats
demonstrated 40% greater locomotive recovery than those in control
groups within 2-3 weeks after transplantation.
Diacrin is a biotechnology company that has pioneered cell
transplantation technology to treat severely debilitating and/or fatal
diseases characterized by cellular dysfunction or cell death. The
company has products in clinical trials to treat Parkinson's
disease, Huntington's disease and epilepsy. In addition, Diacrin is
applying its technology in preclinical development programs to
generate cell transplantation therapies for numerous other debilitating
diseases and conditions. The platform technology
developed by Diacrin has the potential to create therapies for an
extensive range of degenerative diseases for which current
treatments are inadequate or non-existent.
SOURCE: Diacrin, Inc.
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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