Jan Nolta Lab 2011
UC Davis Medical Center
Sacramento, CA 95817
ph: 916-703-9300
jan
Jan Nolta Lab: Huntington's disease Research at The University of California Davis
Link to the HD page about our research in the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's Annual Report:
http://cirm.ca.gov/2010AnnualReport_HD
Link to Jan's talk on stem cell overview and progress toward trials for HD, presented for UCTV May 2011:
presented at the International Society for Stem Cell Therapy (ISCT) Somatic cell conference, 2010:
Preclinical studies of gene-modified MSCs for the treatment of Huntington’s disease
Talk for ISCT, August 2009:
The role of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in the treatment of Huntington’s disease:
Translation from pre-clinical to clinical
Mesenchymal stem cell transferring interfering RNA "medicine" into an at-risk cell (green)
green cell containing the siRNA (small interfering RNA) that had been transferred into it by MSC
We thank the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine for funding this project and thus helping us to bring hope to many patients, children at risk, family members, friends and caregivers worldwide who are affected by Huntington's disease.
Project information:
Damaged neurons lose connections and cannot communicate
MSCs can help restore connections between neurons
MSC can innately detect and migrate to areas of tissue damage, even in the brain.
http://www.hdsa.org/research/news/mesenchymal.html
They can secrete factors that have significant neurorestorative effects.
http://www.nature.com/bmt/journal/v40/n7/abs/1705757a.html
We have used human mesenchymal stem cells/marrow stromal cells (MSCs) for over 20 years to deliver factors throughout the bodies of immune deficient mice, to help the mice to have improved health and also to sustain engraftment of other human cell types.
These MSC act as efficient, long-lived and safe bioreactors in the living body. We have published several recent reviews on this:
We have now patented a novel technology (Olson, Wirthlin, Nolta-UC Davis) to use human mesenchymal stem cells, isolated from the bone marrow or fat of healthy donors, to deliver small interfering RNA directly into other cells. We are using this technology initally in our HD mouse models to prevent accumulation of the toxic mutant htt protein in the brain.
Through this novel technology we hope to rescue at-risk striatal neurons from the destruction caused by the mutant htt protein.
UC Davis Medical Center
Sacramento, CA 95817
ph: 916-703-9300
jan
