Bio-pharmaceutical TiGenix has announced that their human stem cell treatment for patients that experienced a coronary attack was successful.
The heart attack treatment uses allogenic cardiac stem cells in order to repair damaged heart muscle. The procedure also showed no adverse residual side-effects with all patients continuing to live after 30-days, 6-months, and one-year following the procedure.
What makes the announcement by TiGenix more interesting is that the team also observed that patients categorized as having a poor long-term outlook observed an increased benefit. Poor outlook was identified in part, through the use of an innovative use of MRI which helped to evaluate patient risk.
There have been many successful treatments using stem cell therapy for cardiac patients; but this study was specifically designed to establish the safety and feasibility of delivering an intracoronary infusion of stem cells within one week of myocardial infarction.
Study Observations
This trial has identified a number of unique observations:
- All safety criteria were met. There was no mortality even 12-months following the procedure.
- There were no incidents of immune system rejection.
- The size of the damaged cardiac tissue was reduced.
“This is the first trial in which it has been demonstrated that allogeneic cardiac stem cells can be transplanted safely through the coronary tree, and in the worst possible setting represented by patients with an acute heart attack with left ventricular dysfunction,” – Professor Fernández-Avilés, Head of the Department of Cardiology at the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón in Madrid (Spain)
Closing Thoughts
This study demonstrates the long-term safety and viability of using stem cell therapy in the treatment of damaged cardiac muscle for high-risk patients identified through the new MRI approach. The team at TiGenix announced that they will be further analyzing the data to better determine how to move forward in the second half of 2017.
References
Press Release: TiGenix Announces Top-Line Phase I/II Results of AlloCSC-01 in Acute Myocardial Infarction.
