Scientists investigate Veto Cell technology to treat blood cancers, bone marrow transplants

Dec 2 2014

Overcoming graft rejection is the main obstacle when it comes to stem cell regeneration or organ transplantation. Current treatment includes the use of systemic immunosuppression, which leaves the patient at risk for opportunistic infections. Scientists now are investigating whether Veto Cell technology, which selectively tunes immune response, can change how immunologists treat blood cancers and bone marrow transplants, as well as the process of how organs are repaired and new ones are regenerated.  

Itamar Shimat, Cell Source's CEO is available to talk about his company's recent breakthroughs with Veto Cell technology.

First beginnings:
Renowned Professor Yair Reisner and his team at the internationally recognized Weitzman Institute of Science in Rehovot, one of Israel's leading medical institutions, discovered a cell that can selectively tune immune response so that it tolerates (doesn't reject) desirable foreign incursions (e.g. life-saving transplantations) while continuing to actively reject all other incursions (i.e. threats).  His research team coined the breakthrough T Central Memory Veto Cell technology or "Veto Cell Technology," which is now part of Cell Source, an immunotherapy and regenerative medicine company, based in Tel Aviv.

Profound implications for human healthcare:  
Eradicating Blood Cancers with Veto Cell Technology Platform -Veto cells locate, attack and destroy lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma cells by traveling throughout the body and attacking only cancer cells. The Veto cells then live on to kill more cancer cells until the cancer is eradicated allowing patients to become cancer free.

Safe and Accessible Bone Marrow Transplantation with Veto Cell - Veto cell technology can safely neutralize rejection by disabling attack of the transplantation only so it can be accepted by the body without compromising the rest of the immune system. This enables greater use of "mismatched" bone marrow donors, and opens up the use of safer BMT for a far larger number of blood cancers, as well as for the treatment of non-malignant hematological conditions such as sickle cell anemia.

Boosting Drugs to improve Bone Marrow Transplants: the technology can also be used in a combination of an established cell therapy with FDA approved drugs to enable a breakthrough in the use of mismatched BMT. The cell and drug combination is expected to dramatically increase BMT success and survival rates.

Itamar is also available to discuss Cell Source's second technology called Organsource, a revolutionary new way of growing and repairing major human organs (including pancreases and livers) using pig embryonic tissue. Organsource has successfully allowed growing a mouse pancreas, and a primate pancreas. Each organ was grown inside the body of the respective animal to effectively treat diabetes. The primate's new pancreas was grown in 4 months, and reversed the animal's Type 1 diabetes.