Spinal Canal Stenosis
Disease overview
Spinal stenosis is a disease characterised by the narrowing of spaces in your spine. Compression and irritation of the spinal cord and nerve cause lower back (lumbar canal stenosis) and neck pain (cervical spinal stenosis). The symptoms are commonly associated with ageing. Osteoarthritis and herniated disks can cause spinal stenosis. It is diagnosed by examination of the spine by X-rays, MRI or CT. Medication, physical therapy and surgery are common treatments.
Current treatment
A variety of treatment options are available depending on the causes and severity of symptoms. Non-clinical interventions such as heating/cooling, exercise and pain killers have been shown to relieve pain. A corticosteroid injection can also help reduce inflammation and pain. Finally, discectomy procedures through an incision to remove ligament to create space in the spinal canal, thereby reducing compression. More invasive surgery can be used to remove parts of the spine causing pain.
PuREC solution – in-vivo REC-MSC engraftment
PuREC specializes in regenerative cell therapy using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). MSCs are multipotent cells that differentiate into various mesenchymal lineage cells, including bone. Alongside their multipotency, MSCs have low immunogenicity and has been a promising candidate for human cell therapy. Methodological advancements in human bone marrow cells isolation have led to the extraction of extremely pure and rapidly expanding MSC population (Mabuchi et al., 2013). This clonal isolation is achieved by selecting cell surface markers related to enriched clonogenic cells. These rapidly expanding cells (REC) exhibit improved self-renewal and multilineage differentiation, highly relevant to cell therapy.
PuREC aims to capitalize on these technologies to enable the engraftment of MSCs (REC-MSC) for regenerative treatment for spinal stenosis. Cells can be administered in a minimally invasive but targeted fashion to create a suitable environment for repair (Urits et al., 2019). PuREC is en-route to deliver efficient, purer and safer cell therapy.
References:
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Mabuchi, Y., Morikawa, S., Harada, S., Niibe, K., Suzuki, S., Renault-Mihara, F., Houlihan, D.D., Akazawa, C., Okano, H. and Matsuzaki, Y., 2013. LNGFR+ THY-1+ VCAM-1hi+ cells reveal functionally distinct subpopulations in mesenchymal stem cells. Stem cell reports, 1(2), pp.152-165.
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Taketani, T., Oyama, C., Mihara, A., Tanabe, Y., Abe, M., Hirade, T., Yamamoto, S., Bo, R., Kanai, R., Tadenuma, T. and Michibata, Y., 2015. Ex vivo expanded allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells with bone marrow transplantation improved osteogenesis in infants with severe hypophosphatasia. Cell transplantation, 24(10), pp.1931-1943.