Methods for Enhancing MSC Therapeutic Potential for Treatment of Osteoarthritis by Measuring and Targeting Intracellular Pathways

Application

Highly transformative new strategy to enhance mesenchymal stromal cell consistency and efficacy for taking MSC therapies to clinical stage.

Key Benefits

  • Currently there is no method to determine if an MSC donor line will be therapeutically effective.
  • Provides a point of use assay in the clinical setting which can determine MSC efficacy and rejuvenate the efficacy of the cells.
  • Measurements can be utilized as real-time critical quality during large-scale MSC cell manufacturing.

Market Summary

The CDC estimates 1 in 4 Americans have some form of arthritis, with osteoarthritis being the most common form. Osteoarthritis is also a leading contributor to health care costs in much of the developed world.

Technical Summary

Researchers at Emory found that a combination of the JNK activator Metformin with the Akt inhibitor MK-2206 presents a potential promising therapeutic strategy to potentiate the therapeutic efficacy of hMSCs in osteoarthritis. First, the researchers identified the cellular attributes of therapeutic hMSCS in osteoarthritis. This was done by assessing hMSC donor heterogeneity in terms of secreted cytokines, intracellular signaling phosphoproteins, and RNA transcripts related to the therapeutic efficacy of hMSCs for treatment of osteoarthritis. Finally, the researchers identified intracellular signaling pathways mediating secretion of cytokines that yield therapeutic efficacy in osteoarthritis.

Developmental Stage

Proof of concept demonstrated.

Patent Information

App Type Country Serial No. Patent No. File Date Issued Date Patent Status
PCT PCT PCT/US2022/074305   7/29/2022   National Phase Entered
Tech ID: 21189
Published: 7/29/2022