Last week, I reported that Dr. Zannos Grekos was about to speak, so it stands to reason that this time I will report that he spoke.  As the featured speaker at the 2008 Dubai Congress on Anti-Aging and Aesthetic Medicine in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Dr. Grekos presented clinical data of patients he has treated with adult stem cell therapy for the heart:

Dr. Grekos offered cardiac nuclear scans, PET scans, and echocardiographs performed at six months and one year post-treatment, which confirm the regeneration of damaged heart tissue, the existence of new blood vessels and a dramatic improvement in heart function in patients treated with adult stem cells extracted from their own blood.

"This is real science, real medicine and real results," Grekos stated. "We have moved beyond bench research and clinical trials to show that the power of the body's adult stem cells can be harnessed. Our success rate in reversing ischemic cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure is extremely high and with our latest technology we're capturing the same astounding cell regeneration results in other disease classifications."

Today, I introduce to you Karol LaBarrie, a normal looking 7 year old from Brooklyn, New York.  However, his life has been anything but normal after being stricken with Sickle Cell Anemia when he was 6 weeks old.  And he started feeling the sickle cell symptoms of swelling and pain when he was 3 months old.  All in all, he was hospitalized about 40 times.

However, his mother had a baby in 2004 and wisely saved the umbilical cord stem cells.  In 2006, Karol received cord blood stem cells from his brother Kequan.  And guess what happened next:

"If you look in his blood, there's no evidence, when you test it, it's all his brother's blood, so he is completely cured at this point," said Dr. Monica Bhatia.

His story is just one example. (And you can search this website for 100's of other examples- Don)

"There are, I believe, close to a hundred diseases that are treatable with stem cell transplantation today. Principally cancers and inherited diseases such as metabolic abnormalities, inherited anemias, acquired and inherited immune abnormalities," noted Dr. Robert Hariri of LifebankUSA. "We believe in the very near future in broader applications like treating neurologic injury, cardiac injury and so on."

Ahh- another happy adult stem cell story

Recently, I wrote about Osiris, the American stem cell (adult) company that had a couple products on the way to the market.  Their product- Prochymal is in Phase III of clinical trials in the United States to treat Crohn's Disease and Graft Vs Host Disease.  Prochymal can also apparently be used to treat Diabetes 1 and COPD, although not as far along as for Crohn's and GVHD.

Well, looks like Osiris struck it rich and they definitely deserve it for all their perseverance and hard work and money they have put in.  Genzyme is paying Osiris $130 million up front for the rights to sell Prochymal outside the United States and Canada in a deal that could be worth up to $1.25 Billion.

C. Randal Mills, who despite missing a first name still has become the CEO of Osiris said " This new arrangement really is about the fact that [Prochymal] we think is really a lifesaving drug," Mills said. "I'll visit little children we treat in hospitals, see a kid on a ventilator, skin peeling, intensive hemorrhaging, and three weeks later the kid's walking around the room and eating."

And the fact that this same drug can be used to treat not only GVHD, but also Crohn's and seemingly COPD and Diabetes is amazing as well.  I would be willing to bet that it is not limited to these 4 diseases either.

You did good C.  Looks like the world's first successful stem cell company is an ADULT stem cell company- go figure.

Today, I have a great interview with Dr. Desmond Schatz at the University of Florida.  Dr. Schatz is conducting a clinical trial that treats Diabetes Type 1 in children with  adult stem cells taken from their own blood.  This is a great story-  I especially like how this trial was initiated by a parent of a child with Diabetes and suggested it to Dr. Schatz:

Dr. Shatz: "It is a great story, actually. I got a phone call from a parent about four years ago and he called me up and said Dr. Schatz, I want to talk to you about a study he had recently seen in Nature and I asked which paper he was talking about. I read the paper and I saw that what they had done was that they had given bone marrow to animals that had been rendered diabetic and there was an improvement in the diabetes. He basically called me up and asked if I would give this drug to his child or would I give that drug, and I said no. He asked if I would I consider this and I said probably not. He said, "Well I want you to think about doing this. I have stored cord blood in my child. I believe it is safe. Is there anything to lose?"

We discussed it as a group and we looked at the rationale. We clearly thought that it was safe (it is the child's own stem cells- of course it is safe- Don) and we decided to write them a one person protocol and this person was infused with cord blood from that particular child and that child seemed to do better. As a result, we said if it is worked in this particular child, let's devise a study to recruit patients from over the country and the world to participate in this research study."

This is just the beginning.  This adult  stem cell research is moving in the right direction (although too slow as always) It is almost unfortunate that a father of a diabetic child had to provide the push to get this going. 

And all is not lost if you didn't store your child's cord blood.  They can now extract stem cells from the blood stream and bone marrow (I'm not sure if there is a minimum age regarding a bone marrow extraction). 

For more information on this trial, the article provides Dr. Schatz's contact info:

Desmond Schatz, MD
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL
Melanie Fridl Ross, Public Relations, (532) 273-5812
http://www.ufl.edu

And you can click here to read the whole interview for more information on the procedure

It is my pleasure to announce that one of the Repair Stem Cell Institute's Science Advisory Members- Dr. Zannos Grekos is now in Dubai where he is scheduled to be a featured speaker at the 2008 Dubai Congress on Anti-Aging and Aesthetic Medicine in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

This is notable as Dr. Grekos will be showing clinical results of his heart disease and peripheral artery disease patients he has treated with adult stem cells.

 "We have literally saved the lives of patients who prior to the
development of adult stem cell therapy, had no option available to them
through medical science," stated Dr Grekos. "With a minimally invasive
treatment, the risks of which are equal to a cardiac catheterization,
we are more than doubling cardiac patients' ejection fraction,
improving kidney and pulmonary function, saving limbs from amputation
by creating new circulation pathways and most recently reversing the
life-threatening effects of metabolic heart disease."

If you happen to be in Dubai on Saturday, November 8,2008- go see Zannos speak.
You will be enthralled.

If you can't make it-
You can still see Dr. Grekos' Regenocyte website,
where he lists his current stem cell treatments :

• Congestive Heart Failure


• Coronary Artery Disease


• Ischemic Heart Disease


• Cardiomyopathy


• Peripheral Artery Disease


• Kidney Disease


• Severe Pulmonary Disease

Zannos has a private practice in Naples, Florida.
 You can also call his office at 1-866-216-5710.

Here is the whole stem cell press release