September 8-10, 2023, the Miami Beach Hotel (Florida, USA) hosted the World Cord Blood Congress Cord Blood Connect 2023. This is the main international educational and integration event in the field of biobanking of stem cells from umbilical cord blood, umbilical cord and placenta, which annually gathers leading scientists, practical hematologists, representatives of educational organizations to discuss the main achievements of regenerative medicine. Below we present the main industry news from the Cord Blood Connect 2023 reports.
Megan Finch-Edmonson from Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Institute (USA) presented the results of a meta-analysis, which confirm that the use of umbilical cord blood improves motor functions in cerebral palsy patients and a higher dose of the drug is more effective.
In one of the Congress publications Sung Hui Tseng et al reported a successful case of treatment of a 23-year-old patient with cerebral palsy, namely spastic quadriplegia. Allogeneic umbilical cord blood transplantation made it possible to improve motor and congnitive functions. The patient received 3 intravenous infusions of donor umbilical cord blood, compatible for 4/6 according to the HLA system, and the dose of nucleated cells was 10 × 107/kg.
Gesine Kögler from the José Carreras Cord Blood Bank, Germany, presented scientific data that once again confirms that frozen cord blood cells retain their quality characteristics and potential for engraftment in transplants even after decades of storage.
James Ropa from Indiana University showed that umbilical cord blood transplants retain their functional activity even after 27 years of storage in liquid nitrogen (-196 C), and also spoke about 18 genes that determine the ability of hematopoietic stem cells to engraft.
Anthony Filiano from Duke University (USA) said that mesenchymal stem cells isolated from the umbilical cord tissue inhibit the activation of neuroglia, the release of tumor necrosis factor, which determines the effectiveness of these cells in the treatment of diseases of the white matter of the brain.
Erin Morales Ubico from Texas Children’s Hospital presented the results of a single-center cohort clinical trial demonstrating high survival rates in patients with acute combined immunodeficiency after umbilical cord blood stem cell transplantation.
A separate session “Expansion of Cord Blood Cells – New Horizons for Cord Blood Transplantation” was held as part of the Congress. After all, recently in 2023, the American Food and Drug Agency (FDA) for the first time allowed for the clinical use of preparations of expanded umbilical cord blood stem cells. This is a significant event in the history of the use of umbilical cord blood, which earlier due to a relatively small the number of CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells was considered unsuitable for the treatment of leukemia in adults. Today, FDA gave the green light to the expansion technologies for umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells on the omidubisel and UM171 platforms.
Mitchell Horwitz et al published the results of treatment of 36 patients with blood diseases who underwent transplantation of multiplied hematopoietic stem cells from umbilical cord blood in 5 American centers between 2020 and 2023. The study shows that the new method was well tolerated by patients.
Frances Werther and Pedro Couto from the Parentsguide to Cord Blood Foundation analyzed the world experience of using cell therapy in the treatment of COVID-19. The article published by the authors also mentions the Ukraine’s only clinical trial of the Institute of Cell Therapy.
Pablo Fernández and et al published the results of in vitro laboratory study investigating whether the biologically active substances secreted by umbilical cord stem cells could be used in the treatment of melanoma skin cancer.
Reports presented at Cord Blood Connect 2023 by leading world scientists indicate that the field of cord blood biobanking is developing intensively, the range of indications for clinical use of cord blood is constantly expanding, and new methods of cell therapy are being introduced.
In Ukraine, in the conditions of a full-scale invasion, the Institute of Cell Therapy makes every effort for the stable operation of the Cryobank and provides expectant parents with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve the stem cells of umbilical cord blood, umbilical cord and placenta at the birth of a baby as medicine for the future.
