by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
(Feb. 14, 2008) This week’s news from the medical and biotech industries is a study in contradictions. While news was announced of a British toddler cured of cancer with adult stem cells and scientists confirmed a recently discovered alternative to embryonic stem cells, a biotech firm in the U.S. announced plans to test embryonic stem cells on humans.
The most amazing news came out of Suffolk, England earlier this week when doctors announced that three year old Sorrel Mason was cured of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Sorrel was given only a 30 percent chance of surviving after being diagnosed with the disease, which is a cancer of the white blood cells which accumulate in bone marrow and interfere with the production of
normal blood cells. The disease progresses rapidly and can kill within weeks or months if left
untreated.
Normal treatment involves chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant from bone marrow or blood from a close relative. A close match is critical to avoid immune system rejection. Unfortunately, no match could be found for little Sorrel.
After searching all over the world for a suitable donor, doctors at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children found, a leading center in the treatment of childhood leukemia, found a close genetic match in frozen umbilical chord stem cells from a Japanese donor.
“The stem cells frozen in Japan were the only match in the world which could have been used,” Sorrel’s mother, Samantha, told the Daily Mail. “They were the most terrifying months our family could live with, but the doctors pulled off a miracle for us.”
Sorrel became only the second person in Britain to receive a transplant from frozen stem cells and has made complete recovery since undergoing treatment last year.
Only days after this news was announced, scientists at UCLA announced that they had managed to genetically alter human skin cells, producing what has come to be known as pluripotent cells, which are almost identical to human embryonic stem cells in function and biological structure.
“Our reprogrammed human skin cells were virtually indistinguishable from human embryonic stem cells,” said Kathrin Plath, lead author of the study, assistant professor and a researcher with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research.
“The implications for disease treatment could be significant,” Plath said in a prepared statement. “Reprogramming adult stem cells into embryonic stem cells could generate a potentially limitless source of immune-compatible cells for tissue engineering and transplantation medicine. . . . We are very excited about the potential implications.” This work confirms similar research conducted by Shinya Yamakana at Kyoto University and James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin, and proves that these new cells can be easily created in laboratories, which could mark a milestone in stem-cell based regenerative medicine.
In spite of these findings, however, William Lowry, UCLA researcher and co-author of the study, says they still intend to pursue embryonic stem cell research.
“It is important to remember that our research does not eliminate the need for embryo-based human embryonic stem cell research,” he said, “but rather provides another avenue of worthwhile investigation.”
Only two days earlier, on the other side of the continent, Dr. Thomas Okarma, chief executive officer of the Washington DC-based biotech firm, Geron, announced plans to go ahead with the testing of embryonic stem cells on humans this spring, pending approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
According to a CNN report, the studies would involve 40 patients and would be the first time the cells have been used in humans. This marks the first time such a request was made of the FDA.
Experts believe approval will be time-consuming due to the ethical concerns surrounding the process of acquiring embryonic stem cells, which involves the destruction of a human life. The continued pursuit of embryonic stem cell research is baffling, especially because it has proven troublesome in animal testing where it has resulted in no cures but many problems. Not only does it produce immune system rejection problems, because these cells are designed to work
in an embryonic environment, their rapid cellular growth has produced fatal tumors in test subjects.
Consequently, embryonic stem cells have yet to cure or even treat a single disease and any possible test treatments are not expected for at least a decade.
On the other hand, adult stem cells have successfully treated more than 70 diseases and conditions, including Parkinsons, leukemia, heart damage, several cancers, and spinal chord injuries.
The Catholic Church is an enthusiastic supporter of research on stem cells taken from adults, umbilical chords (provided the umbilical cord is not obtained by an abortion), or natural miscarriages.
Pope Benedict said that the destruction of human embryos to harvest stem cells is “not only devoid of the light of God but is also devoid of humanity.” No matter how promising the goals of the research, the ends can never justify means that are “intrinsically illicit.”
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