Geron Forms Collaboration to Investigate GRNOPC1 in Alzheimer’s Disease Models
MENLO PARK, Calif., Jan 26, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) today announced that it has entered into a collaboration jointly funded by Geron and a University of California Discovery Research and Training Grant to investigate the therapeutic potential of its human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-based product, GRNOPC1, for Alzheimer's disease. The company is currently developing GRNOPC1 for the potential treatment of spinal cord injury.
Collaboration
Under the collaboration, GRNOPC1 will be evaluated in models of Alzheimer's disease. The study is designed to assess whether memory, which is impaired in the rodent models as it is in human patients, shows recovery after transplantation of GRNOPC1. The research will be led by Professor Frank M. LaFerla, Director of the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia at the University of California, Irvine.
"We are exploring a number of potential applications for GRNOPC1 in neurological disease in addition to spinal cord injury," said Jane S. Lebkowski, Ph.D., Geron's senior vice president and chief scientific officer, regenerative medicine. "There are striking parallels between recent data on mouse stem cells in Alzheimer's disease models and what we know about GRNOPC1. We are looking forward to testing GRNOPC1 in Alzheimer's models."
In recent published studies, Professor LaFerla and his colleagues have demonstrated that defects in memory were improved by glial cells derived from mouse neural stem cells transplanted into the hippocampus of rodent models of Alzheimer's disease.
"We are excited about this collaboration with Geron," said Frank M. LaFerla, Ph.D. "Our recent studies with mouse neural stem cells have shown that a cell therapeutic approach may have application for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Additionally, our studies have provided insight into the potential reparative mechanism and the properties that are likely to be required of a human therapeutic cell population. GRNOPC1 meets these criteria so we will now test this human cell product in Alzheimer's models."
The transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease that will be used in the study were developed by Professor LaFerla's research group. Alzheimer's mouse models have been used extensively for investigating potential therapeutic approaches because they recapitulate key pathologies that are associated with progressive loss of memory in the human disease, including the extensive loss of neurons in the hippocampus.
Rationale for the Approach
The results from Professor LaFerla's previous studies provide a strong rationale for the potential application of GRNOPC1 in Alzheimer's disease. The most recent data were published in August of 2009 in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.
The studies were set up to investigate whether a stem cell-based therapy could potentially rescue or replace the cells that are lost in Alzheimer's disease and thereby improve memory. Since past studies have shown that murine neural stem cells can differentiate into all mature cell types of the central nervous system, in the LaFerla studies murine neural stem cells were transplanted into the brains of Alzheimer's disease models. The models reproduce impaired memory, which can be assessed using standard behavioral tests.
Professor LaFerla's studies showed that memory improved in the models after neural stem cell transplantation. When the brains of the transplanted Alzheimer's mice were analyzed, an increase in neuronal synaptic connections was found. Importantly, mature glial cells derived from the injected stem cells were found to be the predominant cell type in the transplanted area. New neurons were very rare. GRNOPC1 contains the precursors to human glial cells, which have been shown to mature and repair the lesion site in rodent models of spinal cord injury.
In addition, the improvement in memory and the increase in synaptic density observed after injection of neural stem cells were found to be mediated, at least in part, by the neurotrophic factor BDNF, which is secreted from the transplanted cells. GRNOPC1 has been found to secrete BDNF as well as other neurotrophic factors.
About Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, fatal, degenerative disorder that attacks the neurons in the brain, resulting in loss of memory, cognitive function such as reasoning and language, and behavioral changes. The disease starts with the loss of neural connections, called synapses, in the hippocampus, affecting memory, and progresses to the cortex affecting language and thought.
Currently there is no cure for Alzheimer's disease. Treatments can provide some relief of symptoms but do not stop progression or prevent the disease.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly and the most significant and costly neurological disorder. An estimated 5 million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer's disease with nearly 500,000 new cases predicted each year. As our population ages, the number of new cases is expected to rise significantly.
About Geron
Geron is developing first-in-class biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of cancer and chronic degenerative diseases, including spinal cord injury, heart failure and diabetes. The company is advancing an anti-cancer drug and a cancer vaccine that target the enzyme telomerase through multiple clinical trials in different cancers. For more information, visit www.geron.com.
This news release may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release regarding potential applications of Geron's human embryonic stem cell technology constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, risks inherent in the development and commercialization of potential products, uncertainty of clinical trial results or regulatory approvals or clearances, need for future capital, dependence upon collaborators and maintenance of our intellectual property rights. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Additional information on potential factors that could affect our results and other risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in Geron's periodic reports, including the quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2009.
SOURCE: Geron Corporation
Geron Corporation Investor and Media Relations: Anna Krassowska, Ph.D., 650-473-7765 info@geron.com
The new crusade against Alzheimer’s
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- One of the truly great human accomplishments of the past century has been the revolution in longevity. People in most of the world are living longer, by far, than their forebears. That is an upheaval with profoundly positive economic consequences. But there are also some drastic downsides to the vast expansion in population.
The older that populations become the more they are hit by the diseases of aging. There are hundreds of these ailments, and they include diabetes, arthritis, cancer (to a large degree) and above all, Alzheimer's disease, which causes brain cells to cease to function.
Dr. Robert Butler, president and CEO of the International Longevity Center in New York, estimates that more than 4.5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's. There are similar rates in other developed areas that have been surveyed, including China, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada. As the baby boomers grow older, Butler adds, by the years 2020-2030, the total could be 14 million. The costs, in human and economic terms, he says, could be "devastating."
Now top policymakers in business as well as government are joining to take some cooperative action against this so far incurable disease. The newest opponent is probably the most prestigious global business group of all, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which holds its annual congress this week.
The World Economic Forum is also creating a Council on Aging to cooperatively fight Alzheimer's. Its first chairman will be Butler, and its initial step, he says, will be to make the public in many countries aware of the size of this spreading worldwide problem. Beyond that, the council will use its scientific know-how to develop treatments for long-term care.
Also, Butler and other scientists believe that more could be done to prevent and control diseases that are thought to make victims vulnerable to them, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Says Butler: "We need to be more effective in our screening for high blood pressure. Most victims don't even know they have it."
He calls for governments to adopt policies to help fund research and long-term care-giving so that they would not fall so heavily on individual families and " in the future we would all share in the costs."
In any event, governments and businesses are beginning to realize that as populations grow older, the diseases of the aging will become more of a challenge to people almost everywhere.
MarketWatch reporter Bao Ong in New York City contributed to this story.
Marshall Loeb, former editor of Fortune, Money, and the Columbia Journalism Review, writes for MarketWatch.
Nutritional Drink for Alzheimer’s Patients Evaluated in Clinical Trial
The study follows recently released results from an earlier trial conducted in Europe showing that the drink, called Souvenaid, improved verbal recall in people with mild disease who were followed for three months.
"Our primary goal is to see whether Souvenaid can slow the worsening of memory difficulties in persons with mild to moderate Alzheimer's who are already taking approved treatments for the disease, " said Dr. Raj Shah, medical director of the Rush Memory Clinic and one of the study's lead investigators.
Results of the first European study were released recently following publication in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia. In that study, 225 patients with mild Alzheimer's were divided into two groups. Some drank Souvenaid and the others sipped a non-medical drink every day for 12 weeks.
Researchers found that the patients who drank Souvenaid improved in a delayed verbal recall task.
A total of 500 individuals who are taking medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the symptomatic treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease will be enrolled in the present study at 40 sites across the U.S. In the double-blinded study, half of the participants will drink about four ounces of Souvenaid once a day for 24 weeks. The other half will drink a control product that is similar in flavor, appearance, and composition, but without the Souvenaid nutrients. Neither group will know whether they are drinking Souvenaid or the other beverage.
Researchers will test whether the participants' cognitive and functional performance -- including memory, language, attention/concentration, executive functioning, information processing and recall -- shows any greater improvement with Souvenaid than with medication alone.
Rush University Medical Center receives payment from Nutricia for conducting the trial.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100125173446.htm
Body of Esther McNabb was found
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - Rapid City police say they do not suspect foul play in the death of an 85-year-old woman whose body was found in a field.
Authorities say the body of Esther McNabb was found about 9 a.m. Monday about three-fourths of a mile from her residence. She had been reported missing shortly before 2:30 a.m. by family. Police say she was clothed in a jacket and shoes when found.
Authorities say McNabb had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
http://www.kypost.com/content/wcposhared/story/Technology-Tracks-Missing-Man-With-Alzheimers/TjBfA1vzUU-Dyd4x-p5_1Q.cspx
HAMILTON, Ohio -- Technology is being credited for helping find a Hamilton man with Alzheimer's Disease who went missing over the weekend.
Deputies say Floyd Weber spent more than two hours wandering the streets around his home Saturday. His family tells 9News a tracking device he wears as part of the Butler County Sheriff's Project Lifesaver is what saved his life.
The sheriff's office set up the program three years ago. This is the first time it has been put to the test and it worked.
Weber, 82, remembers why he wears the bracelet. "This sends out a message if they're looking for me and I'm lost," he said.
Weber doesn't remember that he was lost Saturday night. His three children credit the bracelet for getting him home alive.
"I feel like it was a miracle," said Becky Lipscomb, Weber's daughter. "I mean it was just luck. You think how lucky he was," she said.
Investigators say it was around 6:30 p.m. Saturday when they got the call that Weber was missing from the Ross Avenue home where he lives with his granddaughter. Family had already started to search for him.
Weber's one of 17 people enrolled in Project Lifesaver so deputies showed up with a device that tracks the battery in the bracelet. It didn't provide the response deputies hoped for at first.
"Hooking up the equipment and being at the residence and not getting the audible signal is disappointing," said Lieutenant Jean Collette. "Because then you know this person has wandered more than a mile from their residence and in two hours you don't know how far he could have wandered or if he's gotten in a car with someone," said Collette.
A deputy and a K-9 searched the nearby Millikin Woods and deputies drove around the area with the tracking device. The deputies in the cruiser eventually picked up the signal they needed. It led them to the corner of Ohio and Westview avenues, more than a mile from Weber's home.
"He's standing there and he's a muddy mess and I just broke down and started crying," said Lipscomb. "He says I didn't know you loved me this much. I said dad, yes."
"I can't imagine if he hadn't had that bracelet on. I don't think the turnout would have been the same," said Lipscomb.
She said Weber wasn't responding to calls from relatives who were searching for him.
There is currently a waiting list to be part of Project Lifesaver in Butler County.
Missing Person: Leon White Jr., 85,
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Police are looking for an elderly man who was last seen Sunday, between 2 and 3 p.m. at his home in the 5000 block of North Main Street.
Leon White Jr., 85, was visited by his nephew at home Sunday then this morning, White's son stopped by his father's home to take him to the doctor's office and couldn't find him.
His son told police White recently exhibited signs of dementia, but he has not been diagnosed or on any current medication for this condition.
Police said White frequents the area of 48th and Main Street, near the Food Lion. He also visits the Evergreen Cemetery and neighbors in the area.
If you have any information regarding this victim, please contact Detective N. L. Lennon or the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office at 904-630-0500 or 630-2627.
Annie Doris McCoullough, 62, Death being Investigated
DUNN - Police are continuing to look into the death of a woman who was reported missing the day after she was killed on Interstate 95 last week.
Annie Doris McCoullough, 62, had been missing for three days before a Silver Alert was issued for her Jan. 20, said Capt. Tony Strickland of the Dunn Police Department.
McCoullough, who was from Hope Mills, was last seen Jan. 17 at a home on the 600 block of North McKay Avenue in Dunn, officials have said.
She was killed early Jan. 19 as she was walking on the interstate about 3 a.m. near the 63-mile marker. McCoullough suffered from dementia, Strickland said.
Missing Person: 74-year-old George Carpenter
A San Luis Obispo rescue team is expected to travel to rural Monterey County this weekend in hopes of finding 74-year-old George Carpenter, who has been missing since December.
Investigators with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department spent most of the past weekend searching the rugged terrain between Big Sur and Fort Hunter Liggett in southern Monterey County where the San Luis Obispo man’s 1989 Jeep Comanche truck was discovered Saturday.
Those search efforts were suspended Monday after concerns arose about increasingly stormy weather and a lack of clues indicating where to search next.
The San Luis Obispo rescue team, which will likely be deployed to the rural mountainous area this weekend, will receive some assistance from Monterey officials, authorities said Monday.
“We want to do more,” said Capt. Chris Staley of the San Luis Obispo Police Department. “We want to make sure we do everything we can to locate him.”
The two-day search yielded no new signs of Carpenter, who has dementia, according to the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department.
Carpenter went missing Dec. 23 after he drove to Laguna Lake Park in San Luis Obispo with his black Labrador retriever, Scooter.
A resident in a remote area about seven miles inland from the coastal hamlet of Gorda found Carpenter’s dog Wednesday, nearly a month after Carpenter was first reported missing.
His truck was located during an aerial search Saturday at Los Burros and South Coast Ridge roads — a rugged area at 3,300 feet elevation. The area is near the Fort Hunter Liggett Army National Guard base about 50 miles northwest of Paso Robles.
Authorities said Scooter traveled about three to five miles from where the truck was located, adding that there is no way to tell how long the dog wandered before being found.
On Sunday, nine members of the Monterey Sheriff Department’s search and rescue team, two San Luis Obispo detectives, four ATVs, a helicopter, six rescue and cadaver dogs and one forest ranger combed the area near where Carpenter’s truck was found.
They extended their search about a mile-and-a-half from the truck, said Cmdr. Tracy Brown of the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department.
The truck was dusted with snow and unlocked, with the parking break set, he said. It did not appear that Carpenter had spent much time in the truck nor were there any signs of a campsite in the immediate area. No signs of foul play were found either, Brown said.
“It looked like he just parked there,” he said.
Brown cautioned Carpenter’s loved ones not to conduct their own search of the area because of the “treacherous” terrain that’s described as heavily brushed, with steep declines.
Carpenter’s family members say they have learned that the area is also full of mines and jade claims — something that they say would have enticed Carpenter to the area because of his affinity for collecting rocks.
“We are hoping that they will be able to search some of the mine areas, but we also respect that between the rain, snow, mudslides and terrain, that they are doing all they can,” said Beth Wonson, Carpenter’s daughter-in-law.
“We don’t feel very confident that he will be found alive. So we absolutely don’t want anyone to be at risk.”
Reach AnnMarie Cornejo at 781-7939.
Missing Person: Darrell Allen Body was Found
MACON COUNTY - A person found 74-year-old Macon resident Darrell Allen dead Sunday, five days after he went missing.
Allen's body was found at 1:30 Sunday afternoon along Normandale Road, east of Missouri Route Y. The Macon County Sheriff's Department pronounced him dead on the scene.
The Missouri Highway Patrol said there were no signs of foul play. Allen had been suffering from dementia and it's possible he just wandered off.
"Six out of ten [people with dementia or Alzheimer's Disease] will wander, sometimes more than once," Pam Richmond with the Mid-Missouri Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association said.
The Alzheimer's Association exists to assist those facing a diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease and dementia. They offer various services to help families make sure their loved ones are safe. MedicAlert Safe Return is a necklace or bracelet that has a phone number on it to contact if the person gets lost. They also encourage Comfort Zone, a Web-based location tracker, like a GPS system.
This is in addition to the personal services they offer like classes and over-the-phone care consultations. It's work Richmond is passionate about.
"The disease is kind of a light switch, you can be within a block from your home and that light switch goes off and they have no idea where they are so it's very important to take safety steps to prevent that sort of thing from happenening," Richmond said.
For more information about the services in the article, click the link on the left.
Kenneth Speer and his wife, Phyllis Speer of Lakewood, CO Found Safe
DENVER - Authorities found a missing elderly couple, both of whom suffer from dementia, after asking for the public's help in locating them today.
80-year-old Kenneth Speer and his wife, 80-year-old Phyllis Speer of Lakewood, were found wandering down Sheridan Blvd. at 7 p.m. They went missing around 3 a.m. Monday near I-25 and Belleview in Greenwood Village, police said.
Both suffer from dementia and need their medications for a variety of physical and mental ailments, according to police.
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