Thursday, November 26, 2009

CSC news roundup 2009-11-26

Saturday, November 21, 2009

IMUC letter to shareholders

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Issues Letter to Shareholders, News Release, ImmunoCellular Therapeutics (IMUC), November 19, 2009. Excerpt:
  • Signed key manufacturing agreement. The Company entered into an agreement with Formatech, Inc. for the manufacture of IMUC's cancer stem cell vaccine product candidate, ICT-121, the Company's lead product candidate that targets cancer stem cells and may have applicability to multiple types of cancer, for an upcoming clinical trial. The Phase I clinical trial of ICT-121, will target glioblastoma (brain cancer) and is expected to begin early next year, pending clearance by the FDA. ICT-121 is an "off-the-shelf" product, and this agreement calls for Formatech to prepare the vials of cancer vaccine for the clinical trial under a GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) environment.
For a previous news release about this agreement, see: ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Signs Manufacturing Agreement with Formatech for Clinical Trial of ICT-121 Immunotherapy, June 24, 2009 [Formatech release][IMUC release].

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Targeting of AML-leukemic SC with monoclonal antibodies

Targeting of AML-leukemic stem cells with monoclonal antibodies by Erwin M Lee‌ and Richard B Lock, Future Oncol 2009(Nov); 5(9): 1327-30 [PubMed Citation][FriendFeed entry][Full text PDF]. Final sentence of the full text of this Editorial:
An AML patient surface immunophenotype is relatively cost-effective to characterize, raising the prospect of individualized therapy based on a selection of available MAbs. Most certainly, we are entering a new and exciting era in the struggle to improve outcome in adult AML.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

CSC news roundup 2009-11-10

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Heterogeneity in the AML stem cell pool

Heterogeneity in the AML stem cell pool by Laura E Hays, Blood 2009(Nov 5); 114(19): 3976-7 [PubMed Citation][FriendFeed entry]. Excerpt:
To examine AML and stem cell diversity, Heuser and colleagues develop a novel murine model that closely mimics aggressive human AML and demonstrate an essential role of Stat5 in leukemic stem cell renewal.
Comment on: Modeling the functional heterogeneity of leukemia stem cells: role of STAT5 in leukemia stem cell self-renewal by Michael Heuser and 14 co-authors, including Gerald Krystal and R Keith Humphries, Blood 2009(Nov 5); 114(19): 3983-93 [Epub 2009(Aug 10)][PubMed Citation].

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Featured Article in Cell Stem Cell (Nov 09)

Featured article in the November 6, 2009 issue of Cell Stem Cell (access to the Featured Article is free for all readers):
Malignant glioma remains challenging to treat, despite the use of aggressive surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Although the concept of cancer stem cells reveals a new framework of cancer therapeutic strategies against malignant glioma, it remains unclear how glioma stem cells could be eradicated. In this issue, Miyazono and colleagues demonstrate that autocrine TGF-β signaling helps maintain glioma-initiating cells and find that chemical inhibition blocks the TGF-β-Sox4-Sox2 signaling axis, resulting in glioma cell differentiation in culture and loss of in vivo tumor-forming capacity. Therefore, clinical disruption of this pathway may represent a therapeutic paradigm against gliomas.
Autocrine TGF-β Signaling Maintains Tumorigenicity of Glioma-Initiating Cells through Sry-Related HMG-Box Factors by Hiroaki Ikushima and 5 co-authors, including Kohei Miyazono, Cell Stem Cell 2009(Nov 6); 5(5): 504-14). [Full text].

Monday, November 2, 2009

CSC news roundup: 2009-11-02