Imagine taking the best and most experienced cops you have, flying them to a state-of-the-art training facility overseas, creating a new elite force from them, and then reintroducing this expanded force back into the human body.
Sounds like sci-fi? This is precisely what leading stem cell therapy company CyGenics Ltd plans to do in Calcutta to combat cancer.
CyGenics, headquartered in Australia and Singapore, is setting up an umbilical cord blood bank in the city early next year through its subsidiary CordLife, and hopes to bring in the fruits of ‘Pacrima’, an international collaborative effort to develop new treatments for cancer it is part of.
“The whole idea behind the Pacrima initiative is boosting the body’s immune capability by increasing the number of ‘activated’ T-cells —which are the body’s police force designated to handle specific diseases,” CyGenics’ Group CEO, Steven Fang tells Metro.
Fang adds Calcutta would be the nerve centre of the company’s India operations and that the next step will be stem cell transplantation, which can theoretically treat more than 72 diseases. “We would assist clinicians in Calcutta to obtain stem cells and also help with our patented technologies and new stem cell-based medical therapies,” the CEO says.
One of the compelling fields CyGenics is involved in is the production of human T-cells, a critical component of the immune system. This has implications in treatments for cancers, immune disorders, viral and bacterial infections and other conditions that are today proving drug-resistant.
T-cells and natural killer (NK) cells need to be mobilised against the cancer, which is done by dendritic cells, another specialised group of cells of the immune system. These cells are like undercover cops patrolling in search of foreign cells, such as cancer cells.
Once detected, the dendritic cells absorb part of the foreign cells’ structure, and pass this critical information on to T-cells and NK cells, which then know where the ‘terrorists’ are and can send in a “properly-equipped SWOT team” to kill the ‘criminal’ cells. “Going by this strategic information, the police (T-cells) now know that in another part of the body, it’s just a gang of robbers, and can send the appropriate level of response. In yet another part of the body, it’s smugglers, so they know to send in the coast guard, and so on,” explains Jeremy Yee, managing director and CEO of CordLife.
As a spin-off from the Pacrima project, Cygenics is also participating in discussions for a pre-clinical and clinical project examining the issue of immunological recovery after stem cell transplantation (SCT).
Patients treated by SCT for diseases such as leukaemia can take 12 months or more to recover effective immunity against infection, and significant morbidity and mortality occurs during this period because of bacterial and viral diseases.
This project, which involves up to five of the largest transplant centres in Europe, will examine approaches to boosting the immune system during this critical period, including the use of T-cells produced in the RegenImmune system.
“We see West Bengal as a sunrise state and we are a sunrise industry. The possibilities of collaboration are endless,” says Arijit Mookerjee, group financial controller, CordLife, which is bringing its ‘AABB’ accreditation to Calcutta.
CyGenics hopes to provide cellular-based solutions for cardiac conditions and diabetes too, at a later date. “With our investment in Dutch company Pharmacell, we are repositioning as an integrated cell therapy company,” says Fang.
