Browsing by Author "Johnstone, Brian"

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    EMPHYMAB BIOTECH, MEDICAL THERAPIES FOR EMPHYSEMA
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2013-04-05) Johnstone, Brian; Claus, Matthias; Petrache, Irina
    Emphymab™ Biotech was formed to develop and commercialize medical therapies that address serious lung diseases. The founders are scientists and clinicians at Indiana University School of Medicine. Emphymab’s lead technology is based on a novel monoclonal antibody that inactivates a newly discovered pathway involved in lung diseases and, thereby, halts progressive loss of lung function associated with emphysema. This technology has the potential to address the huge unmet medical need of patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with emphysema, which is the 3rd leading cause of death worldwide.
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    Evaluating Thera-101 as a Low-Volume Resuscitation Fluid in a Model of Polytrauma
    (MDPI, 2022-10-21) Shah, Jessica Stukel; Macaitis, Joseph; Lundquist, Bridney; Johnstone, Brian; Coleman, Michael; Jefferson, Michelle A.; Glaser, Jacob; Rodriguez, Annette R.; Cardin, Sylvain; Wang, Heuy-Ching; Burdette, Alexander; Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine
    Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and hemorrhage remain challenging to treat in austere conditions. Developing a therapeutic to mitigate the associated pathophysiology is critical to meet this treatment gap, especially as these injuries and associated high mortality are possibly preventable. Here, Thera-101 (T-101) was evaluated as low-volume resuscitative fluid in a rat model of TBI and hemorrhage. The therapeutic, T-101, is uniquely situated as a TBI and hemorrhage intervention. It contains a cocktail of proteins and microvesicles from the secretome of adipose-derived mesenchymal stromal cells that can act on repair and regenerative mechanisms associated with poly-trauma. T-101 efficacy was determined at 4, 24, 48, and 72 h post-injury by evaluating blood chemistry, inflammatory chemo/cytokines, histology, and diffusion tensor imaging. Blood chemistry indicated that T-101 reduced the markers of liver damage to Sham levels while the levels remained elevated with the control (saline) resuscitative fluid. Histology supports the potential protective effects of T-101 on the kidneys. Diffusion tensor imaging showed that the injury caused the most damage to the corpus callosum and the fimbria. Immunohistochemistry suggests that T-101 may mitigate astrocyte activation at 72 h. Together, these data suggest that T-101 may serve as a potential field deployable low-volume resuscitation therapeutic.
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    Intracoronary and retrograde coronary venous myocardial delivery of adipose-derived stem cells in swine infarction lead to transient myocardial trapping with predominant pulmonary redistribution
    (Wiley, 2014-01) Jun Hong, Soon; Hou, Dongming; Brinton, Todd J.; Johnstone, Brian; Feng, Dongni; Rogers, Pamela; Fearon, William F.; Yock, Paul; March, Keith L.; Department of Medicine, IU School of Medicine
    OBJECTIVES: To examine the comparative fate of adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) as well as their impact on coronary microcirculation following either retrograde coronary venous (RCV) or arterial delivery. BACKGROUND: Local delivery of ASCs to the heart has been proposed as a practical approach to limiting the extent of myocardial infarction. Mouse models of mesenchymal stem cell effects on the heart have also demonstrated significant benefits from systemic (intravenous) delivery, prompting a question about the advantage of local delivery. There has been no study addressing the extent of myocardial vs. systemic disposition of ASCs in large animal models following local delivery to the myocardium. METHODS: In an initial experiment, dose-dependent effects of ASC delivery on coronary circulation in normal swine were evaluated to establish a tolerable ASC dosing range for intracoronary (IC) delivery. In a set of subsequent experiments, an anterior acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was created by balloon occlusion of the proximal left anterior descending (LAD) artery, followed by either IC or RCV infusion of 10(7) (111)Indium-labeled autologous ASCs 6 days following AMI. Indices of microcirculatory resistance (IMR) and coronary flow reserve (CFR) were measured before sacrifices to collect tissues for analysis at 1 or 24 hr after cell delivery. RESULTS: IC delivery of porcine ASCs to normal myocardium was well tolerated up to a cumulative dose of 14 × 10(6) cells (approximately 0.5 × 10(6) cells/kg). There was evidence suggesting microcirculatory trapping of ASC: at unit doses of 50 × 10(6) ASCs, IMR and CFR were found to be persistently altered in the target LAD distribution at 7 days following delivery, whereas at 10 × 10(6) ASCs, only CFR was altered. In the context of recent MI, a significantly higher percentage of ASCs was retained at 1 hr with IC delivery compared with RCV delivery (57.2 ± 12.7% vs. 17.9 ± 1.6%, P = 0.037) but this initial difference was not apparent at 24 hr (22.6 ± 5.5% vs. 18.7 ± 8.6%; P = 0.722). In both approaches, most ASC redistributed to the pulmonary circulation by 24 hr postdelivery. There were no significant differences in CFR or IMR following ASC delivery to infarcted tissue by either route. CONCLUSIONS: Selective intravascular delivery of ASC by coronary arterial and venous routes leads to similarly limited myocardial cell retention with predominant redistribution of cells to the lungs. IC arterial delivery of ASC leads to only transiently greater myocardial retention, which is accompanied by obstruction of normal regions of coronary microcirculation at higher doses. The predominant intrapulmonary localization of cells following local delivery via both methods prompts the notion that systemic delivery of ASC might provide similarly beneficial outcomes while avoiding risks of inadvertent microcirculatory compromise.
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    Vascular and Cardiac Adult Stem Cell Therapy Center
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2010-04-09) March, Keith; Murphy, Michael; Petrache, Irina; Evans-Molina, Carmella; Farag, Sherif; Traktuev, Dmitry; Saadatzadeh, Reza; Johnstone, Brian; Schweitzer, Kelly; Rosen, Elliot; Chen, Peng-Sheng
    The mission of the Vascular and Cardiac Adult Stem Cell Therapy Center (VC-CAST) is the discovery and clinical translation of therapies involving transplantation of adult stem cells into patients with debilitating diseases. To accomplish this, VC-CAST fosters multidisciplinary research collaborations that address both biology of adult stem cells that are readily available, and the translation of their study from the laboratory into clinical trials. The use of such cells is highly feasible, and not ethically controversial, as they are derived from readily-available tissues such as fat and bone marrow. Since its inception, VC-CAST projects have been multidisciplinary, involving multiple clinical as well as basic departments of the School of Medicine. VC-CAST projects are also collaborative, with most of the projects having one or more industrial partners. A key partnership has also been established by the creation of the Veterans Affairs Center for Regenerative Medicine (VACRM) at the Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, which will provide a unique referral site focusing on research and implementation of first-in-human trials in the fields of poor circulation, arthritis, wound healing, diabetes, and emphysema. Given the focus of VC-CAST researchers on translation, the center is active in pursuit of intellectual property that is critical to building corporate engagement and thus the enablement of translation to clinical trials. Signature center funding has allowed IUPUI investigators to try high-risk, high-reward ideas, which could not otherwise be funded readily, via either NIH or venture-capital methods. Most of these experiments are still ongoing, but have already led to discoveries of potentially critical significance to patients. The novelty of some of these discoveries promises to attract new funding, as well as to provide bases for potential licensing revenues and startup opportunities. This poster will highlight several of these projects, representative of center activities in their collaborative, multidisciplinary and translational and potentially commercializable aspects. Some key projects are as follows: • Based on recent completion of the Phase I/II clinical trial, “Stem cell Angiogenesis to promote limb salVagE (SAVE), a new randomized Phase III clinical trial testing the use of one’s own bone marrow-derived stem cells to save legs from amputation has been initiated, with Dr. Murphy as the national PI. • Adipose Stem Cells for Peripheral Arterial Disease. • Endometrial Regenerative Cells for Peripheral Arterial Disease. • Adipose Stem Cells for treatment of Heart Attack and prevention of Heart Failure. • Adipose Stem Cells for Emphysema and other Lung Diseases • Adipose Stem Cells for Prevention and Treatment of Diabetes • Isolation and Characterization of Endothelial and Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Term Human Placenta. • Isolation and Characterization of Endothelial Colony Forming Cells (ECFCs) from Human Adult Blood Vessels
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    Vascular and Cardiac Adult Stem Cell Therapy Center (VC-CAST)
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2011-04-08) March, Keith; Murphy, Michael; Petrache, Irina; Evans-Molina, Carmella; Traktuev, Dmitry; Johnstone, Brian; Clauss, Matthias; Hong, Soonjun; Gangaraju, Rajashekhar; Saadatzadeh, M. Reza; Schweitzer, Kelly; Rosen, Elliot; Farag, Sherif; Du, Yansheng; Chen, Peng-Sheng
    The mission of the Vascular and Cardiac Adult Stem Cell Therapy Center (VC-CAST) is the discovery and clinical translation of therapies involving transplantation of adult stem cells into patients with debilitating diseases. VC-CAST fosters multidisciplinary research collaborations that address the biology of adult stem cells that are readily available, as well as the translation of their study from the laboratory into clinical trials. The use of such cells is highly feasible, and not ethically controversial, as they are derived from readily-available tissues such as fat and bone marrow. VC-CAST projects involve partners from multiple clinical and basic departments of the School of Medicine. VC-CAST projects are also collaborative externally, with most projects having one or more industrial or academic external partners. A key partnership has also been established at the Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis by creation of the Veterans Affairs Center for Regenerative Medicine (VACRM), which will provide a unique referral site focusing on research and implementation of first-in-human trials in the fields of poor circulation, stroke, arthritis, wound healing, diabetes, and emphysema. Given the focus on translation, the center is active in pursuit of intellectual property that is critical to building corporate engagement and thus the enablement of translation to clinical trials. Signature Center funding has allowed IUPUI investigators to try high-risk, high-reward ideas, which could not otherwise be funded readily, via either NIH or venture-capital methods. Most of these experiments have already led to discoveries of potentially critical significance to patients. The novelty of some of these discoveries has attracted new funding, as well as provided bases for potential licensing revenues and startup opportunities. This poster will highlight several such projects, representative of center activities in their multidisciplinary, translational, and potentially commercializable aspects. Several key projects are as follows: • Saving Legs from Amputation o Bone Marrow Stem Cells: Based on our completion of the Phase I/II clinical trial, “Stem cell Angiogenesis to promote limb salVagE (SAVE), we have initiated a randomized Phase III clinical trial testing one’s own bone marrow-derived stem cells to save legs from amputation, with Dr. Murphy as national PI. o Fat-derived (Adipose) Stem Cells– we are testing the hypothesis that these are more potent than Bone Marrow-derived stem cells with new funding from a corporate partner as well as the Department of Defense. o Endometrial Regenerative Cells– further extending above efforts, with new NIH funding to study this allogeneic (non-self, “off-the-shelf”) cell type. • Treatment of Heart Attack and prevention of Heart Failure. New data this year shows Adipose Stem Cells protect from heart damage when given systemically. • Treatment of Emphysema and other Lung Diseases. Adipose Stem Cells markedly protect from cigarette smoke-induced emphysema, a generally untreatable condition. • Prevention and Treatment of Diabetes– Adipose Stem Cells can ameliorate diabetes. This work has attracted new Veterans Affairs funding this past year. • Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease by rescue of dopaminergic neurons from death. New funding attracted in the past year by the Signature Center led to preclinical data that extended prior work in stroke models to models of Parkinson’s Disease. These data suggest that the conditioned medium from ASCs can be useful in this debilitating condition, and form the basis for a new NIH application. • Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy by vascular stabilization using adipose stem cells. This is a new project in the past year, and has generated encouraging early data which is being used in seeking further (external) funding. • Human Placenta as a stem cell source: Isolation and Characterization of Endothelial and Mesenchymal Stem Cells from Term Placenta. • Human Saphenous Vein as a cell source: Isolation and Characterization of Endothelial Colony Forming Cells (ECFCs) from Human Saphenous Vein can form the basis for vascular network formation.