CHARLESTOWN, Mass., Nov. 6
/PRNewswire/ -- Diacrin, Inc.
(NASDAQ:DCRN) 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.