New Project Launches To Tackle Diabetic Kidney Disease

A new €6m EU Horizon 2020 research project has been launched using stem cell therapy to treat diabetic kidney disease.

The NEPHSTROM project has been funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 programme to evaluate the clinical safety and efficacy of a next-generation cell therapy discovered by Galway-based Orbsen Therapeutics.

The project will be led by Professor Timothy O'Brien, Director of the Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI) at the National University of Ireland Galway. The four-year project will test the next-generation stromal (stem) cell therapy, called Cyndacel-M, in a four-site clinical trial treating patients in Ireland, Northern Ireland, England and Italy.

The 'stromal' cells will be purified from healthy donor bone marrow using Orbsen Therapeutics' patented technology, and expanded into multiple 'off-the-shelf' doses for clinical use. By 2016, first-in-man trials will see the stromal cells injected into patients with diabetic kidney disease.

NUI Galway's Professor O'Brien said: "If predictions prove correct, then our healthcare systems are facing a huge task in managing the complications caused by ever-increasing numbers of patients with diabetes mellitusmellitus.

"Chief among such complications will be kidney disease, which has a huge financial cost in terms of current treatments, and takes a massive personal toll on patients. Diabetes is currently the most common cause of end stage kidney disease resulting in the need for dialysis or transplantation.

"We are confident that by harnessing the most modern approaches in stromal cell therapeutics there may well be a way to halt the progression of diabetic kidney disease using this therapy."

(CD/JP)