Monthly Archives: June 2020

Stephen Raffone had difficulty breathing. He coughed up sputum and was wheezing. Doctors told him he had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a condition that causes blocked airflow from the lungs.

As a result, he was being treated for stage 4 COPD.

His doctor was also treating him for cellulitis, an inflammatory and painful bacterial skin infection where extremities appear red and swollen and the area can feel hot and tender to the touch, as well as poor circulation.

My legs were beginning to get ulcerated and they were breaking down, said Raffone.

He was administered the Roman Catholic Churchs Last Rites three times several years ago when he was a patient in Richmond University Medical Center.

Raffone, who is now 63, was in need of a lung transplant.

He was a heavy smoker and it took its toll. However, because he was in a weakened state due to other serious health conditions, doctors told him hed never survive the surgery.

The Westerleigh resident, who has been in need of 24-hour care for the last several years, requires the assistance of two nurses who rotate 12-hour shifts.

One, a close family friend, suggested Raffone see a medical specialist who performs stem cell therapy, a procedure where the patients own stem cells are removed, treated and returned to his or her own body after a conditioning regimen.

She contacted Dr. Alexandre M. Scheer of Scheer Medical Wellness and he agreed to see Raffone.

Dr. Alexandre M. Scheer (Courtesy/Stephen Raffone)Staten Island Advance

But since Raffone was unable to leave his home, Scheer visited Raffone for a consultation and to evaluate his condition.

Fast forward a year and a half and Scheer has continued with those visits almost every Saturday free of charge also underwriting the cost for treatments, as well as Uber rides from Manhattan to Staten Island, in order to perform the stem cell procedure.

RAFFONES NURSE SPEAKS

One of Raffones nurses recounted Raffones journey.

She explained that when they started to explore stem cell therapy she placed calls to several doctors, but the biggest thing that jumped out at her was the astronomical cost.

But there was something about Dr. Scheer. And I just knew he was the right one, said the registered nurse for more than 30 years. "He wasnt interested in money. His goal is his patients outcome. Stephen did pay for the first set of treatments, but since then, Dr. Scheer has not taken a dime.

When the patient began treatments, the first therapy was a tremendous boost and then every week after that he was treated for seven weeks. In the beginning, the doctor visited every week and brought whatever supplies was needed. The PRP (platelet rich plasma) treatments are daily.

I draw the blood, I spin the blood," she said. We have a small centrifuge here so it separates the blood. The PRP is given by a nebulizer. It takes about 30 minutes. And once a week he gets a protein enriched plasma, which takes about a half hour, she added.

He has chronic venous ulcerations of the both lower extremities from the knee down, she said.

Raffone has end stage COPD. But since he started the treatments, hes gone to the hospital only once. And he has tested negative for antibody COVID-19.

RAFFONES TREATMENT BEGINS

Raffone was required to install the centrifuge machine with needles and plasma tube, a laboratory device used for the separation of fluids, gas or liquid, based on density. Separation is achieved by spinning a vessel containing material at high speed.

Initially, Dr. Scheer sent a plastic surgeon to my home to perform liposuction, a type of fat-removal procedure used in plastic surgery, where they separate the fat and preserve the stem cells, Raffone said. They did this four times weekly at the beginning. Dr. Scheer has been visiting my home pretty much each week since Sept. 22, 2018. But right now the stem cell therapy is done once a month."

They draw blood out and spin it. Its all done through IV. Right now stem cell infusion is done once a month and daily through a nebulizer. Dr. Scheer does it on Saturday and my nurse and dear friend to Dr. Scheer does it during the week. My house looks like a hospital. Dr. Scheer is keeping me alive and everything is healing up so well, said Raffone.

Stephen Raffone's left leg before stem cell treatment. (Courtesy/Stephen Raffone)Staten Island Advance

Raffone says he wanted to come forward with his account at this time because hes so grateful and especially today when so many negative stories are in the news.

We need some good stories. There are very few people like Dr. Scheer, especially now during the COVID-19 crisis, he said.

My nurse draws the blood and puts it in a centrifuge when the doctor cant make it from the city. But Dr. Scheer is still coming to my house in spite of the COVID-19 crisis," Raffone continued.

Raffone has been confined to a bed one that he says turns you from side to side and upside down. But Dr. Scheer is confident that when restrictions are lifted and physical therapy sessions resume, Raffone will be able to walk.

The stem cell therapy is not only helping to combat Raffones COPD, but it has also helped him with cellulitis on his leg.

Stephen's Raffone healed left leg after stem cell therapy. (Courtesy/Stephen Raffone)Staten Island Advance

Scheer, a staunch supporter of stem cell therapy, has a background in neurosurgery and regenerative medicine. He performs surgery at several surgical centers in Manhattan.

It has to do with the amount of cells your bone marrow," he said. What we do is . . . saturate the body with stem cells. It suppresses the inflammatory response. COVID-19 also is an inflammatory disease. The COVID-19 kills the lungs. So you dont have oxygen going through. The stem cells protect, so you have continual oxygen transfer.

Dr. Scheer, who practices at Sheer Medical Wellness in Manhattan, says you can regenerate yourself.

I want my patients to be fine. I will pay for the patient. Im happy Stephens alive. And then my life is made. Stephen will now be able to walk after physical therapy. He was on 12 liters of oxygen daily. Hes now on two liters. I know his nurse very well and thats how we connected. The stem cell treatment is the appropriate treatment for him. I pay out of pocket because I know the right treatment for his condition," he added.

Dr. Scheer points out in China and in Israel stem cell therapy is the treatment they use for COVID- 19.

Its where you take Eastern and Western medicine and put it together. The patients body and will to live and having the right outlook on life has a lot to do with proper health. Our group is so big. We have 40 different doctors in my practice. Im the medical director, he said. Stem cell treatment is the future of medicine. At $10,000 a treatment, its very expensive. And the number depends on the issue at hand.

THE INITIAL CALL

When Scheer spoke to Raffone, He said I cant get out of bed,' the doctor said. "I drove to Staten Island and I got to know Stephen and his family very well. Its not a one-time treatment. Im seeing him on a weekly basis. There is a relationship that occurs. And thats what matters and thats what keeps people alive. Hope is what keeps them alive. And Im doing this since 2001. The treatment involves platelet enriched plasma that suppresses inflammatory reactions in the lungs. Whats happening is youre able to suppress the inflammatory reaction. His legs and his heart are getting better as well. This is a treatment until we can get him walking.

Scheer says Raffone must undergo physical therapy in oder for him to walk around freely.

And hell be able to travel to my office. Im not giving up on him. Im paying out of pocket. A quarter of my patients, I pay for. Stephen has gone through so much. Hes alive because of stem cell therapy. And due to his lung condition with COVID, he has not contracted it."

Scheer says its been a team effort, with multiple doctors coming into play.

Stephen is keeping himself alive. Im just the tool that can help. I just do the best I can for as many people as I can.

Read this article:
Westerleigh resident is alive because of stem cell therapy by his doctor -- for free. Heres his story. - SILive.com

Researchers atAirlangga University (Unair) and the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) released on June 12what appeared to be an encouraging statement:the discovery of five combination drug therapies and two stem cell therapies for treating COVID-19.

The acute respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has claimed at least 2,000 lives in Indonesia to date.

The joint statementattributed to Unair andBIN also said that themedicines were ready for distributionin treating COVID-19 patients.

Drug combinations

The five combination therapiesfor COVID-19 are: lopinavir/ritonavir with azithromycin, lopinavir/ritonavir with doxycycline, lopinavir/ritonavir with clarithromycin, hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin, and hydroxychloroquine with doxycycline.

In addition, the statementclaimed that the researchers had identified two types of isolated stemcells that inhibitedSARS-CoV-2 activity:hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and natural killer (NK) cells.

Their goodwill to bring an end tothe pandemic should be appreciated. Unfortunately, their conclusions seem premature and could lead to more damaging consequences for the public.

In theory, the drug combinationsrecommended by Unair and BIN have the potentialto inhibit SARS-CoV-2. Lopinavir and ritonavir are protease inhibitors that are currently used to treat people with HIV/AIDS. Hydroxychloroquine is a malarial treatment, while azithromycin, doxycyclineand clarithromycin are antibiotics that can fight secondary bacterial (not viral) infections in COVID-19 patients who have developed pneumonia.

However, theory does not necessarily work inpractice. Noneof these drugs have been provenin any clinical study to bea safe and effective treatmentfor COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) has started clinical trials involving thousands of patients in dozens of countries to test the efficacy and safety of these drugs. So far, there has been no clear indication that these drugs, whether individually or in combination,are effective in treating COVID-19.

In fact, evidence exists that hydroxychloroquine may worsen the condition of patients, which led the WHO to suspend the clinical trial of the drug.

Unair and BIN are correct in conducting in vitro (test tube) experiments to verify the effect and toxicity of the drugs for SARS-CoV-2. Unfortunately, they have not communicated in any clear way on how they designed, executedand analyzed their experiments.

We do not know how they cultured the virus, what kind of negative controls they used, what kind of cells they testedor whether the cells they usedcontained the necessary receptors for SARS-CoV-2 to enter a human cell. More importantly, it is crucial to note thatthe results of in vitro experiments(however encouraging) cannot be assumed to be safe and effectivetreatments for direct use in human patients. For example, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on averageapprovedless than 10 percent of drugs that performed well in vitroas safe for humanprescription.

The human lungs contain millions of cells comprising dozens of different types that perform intricate interactions. The proposed drugs can also affect other organs in the human body and cause adverse reactions.

Instead of announcing that these five combination therapiesare ready for treating COVID-19, Unair and BIN should first run arandomizedcontrolled trial (RCT) to confirm their findings.Recruiting diverse patient populations is also critical to ensuring thefairness and robustness of the study.

Despite their good intentions, all the drugs that Unair and BIN researchers have proposedare strong medicines, whether individually or in combination, that can potentially cause unwanted sideeffects and even death. Surely none of us want to rush into an unproven treatmentin order to avoid developing even more overwhelming health problems in the future.

Stem cell therapy

Stem cell therapy is another COVID-19treatment that Unair and BIN researchers have proposed. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells thathas the potential to develop into many different types of cells in human body. One type of stem cell they have proposed is hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), whichdevelop into blood cells, includingimmune cells that help the body fight pathogens and infections.

However, stem cell therapy is still considered very risky, expensiveand limited to treating a few cancers, such as leukemia. No evidence exists that stem cell therapy is efficient in treating viral infections in the human bodysuch asCOVID-19.

As with the drug therapies, the Unair and BIN researchers did not say how they performed their stem cell experiment. We have no information oncrucial aspects likestem cell culturing protocol, the stem cell's differentiation status, tumorigenic potential, proliferation capacity orexcretion patterns, and how they tested stem cell activity against SARS-CoV-2.

Even if the researchersestablished a sound experimentalprotocol for their in vitro experiments, administering stem cell therapy to COVID-19 patients is an extremely dangerous procedure that can result in undesirable costs, such as malignancy, the stem cells attacking other healthy cellsand possibly death.

Injecting stem cells into the human body carries a huge risk of immuno-rejection (think of a blood type A patient receivinga bloodtype B infusion, but witha much more severe reaction). The doctors administering the treatment must isolate autologousstem cells from the individual patient or allogenic stem cells froma separate donor, culture them, and reinject the treated cells into the patient. These processes are extremely laborious, time-consumingand expensive, and there is no clear indication that the treatment will produce a safe and successful outcome against viral infection.

This is hardly a sound strategy to use during a pandemic. Furthermore, thecommon procedureis to administer powerful immunosuppressants to reduce the strength of thepatients immune system, particularly in the allogenic scenario, which would minimizethe risk of immuno-rejection. However, it would be unwise to shut down a COVID-19patient's immune system that is neededto work properly for their body to fight SARS-CoV-2.

Unair and BIN's valiant effortsshould still be applauded, as they are committed to treating COVID-19 and ending the pandemic. The public is waiting impatiently for the health crisis to subside so they canresume their normal lives.

However, everyone should realize that discovering treatments and developing a potential vaccine for a disease that was virtually unknown six months ago takes a lot of time and resources.

Unair and BIN said that they had submitted their research to at least seven peer-reviewed internationaljournals, but this does not mean that their research is validated immediately. It still needs reviewing and questioned by their scientific peers.

It is necessary for the researchers to publish their findings onan open access, preprint repository for biological or medical research papers like BiorXiv or MedrXiv, so that scientists and people around the worldcan scrutinize and engage in healthy scientific discourse.

We absolutely deserve good news during the pandemicon safe medical treatmentsand vaccines. We also deserve complete, clear and transparent public communications from all COVID-19 stakeholders, including researchers and governments, to ensure that all actions are evidence-based, safeand effective.

The writer is a research scientist with a PhD in biochemistryfrom the University of Cambridge, which he earned as a recipient of the 2015-2019 Gates Cambridge Scholarship program.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.

Excerpt from:
Preventing misleading claim of COVID-19 cure - The Jakarta Post - Jakarta Post

When Dr Yendry Ventura began work to set up the Abu Dhabi Stem Cell Centre in late 2018, there was, he says, nothing else "related to stem cell therapy in the emirate.

Fast forward to today and the situation has changed dramatically. After opening in December last year, the centre has already received international press coverage over to its research into a treatment for Covid-19.

Their groundbreaking work has involved taking stem cells from a patients blood and returning them, via a nebuliser, as a fine mist to the lungs.

There they help regenerate lung cells and improve the body's immune response by preventing an overreaction to the infection that can damage healthy cells.

What characterises the method, says Dr Ventura, is that very little manipulation of the cells is needed for the treatment to be effective.

The future for the stem cells lies in regenerative medicine, in which you can treat almost all the degenerative conditions.

Dr Yendry Ventura

We separate a specific layer of cells from the blood, Dr Ventura told The National. Were the first one to use these cells with this route with this method.

We believe this way the cells can be aimed much better to the affected organs - the upper and lower respiratory tract.

In April, the centres efforts to develop a Covid-19 treatment led to the recovery of all 73 patients the treatment was initially trialled on. A quarter had been in intensive care.

The results appeared so promising that this month the centre secured intellectual property rights to the technique, allowing the treatment to be widely licensed, including to facilities abroad.

The ongoing work exemplifies how the centres specialists have been able to apply their expertise to help in a time of crisis, Dr Ventura said.

But the new research is a departure from the facilitys usual purpose, which involves developing cutting-edge stem cell treatments for conditions such as cancer and heart disease.

Stem cells were first extracted from humans and grown in laboratories less than a quarter of a century ago.

The human body is mostly made of specialised cell types, such as heart muscle cells, kidney cells or nerve cells, all of which have a particular form related to their function.

Stem cells, however, have not yet undergone the process of developing into a specialised cell type, and are able to be manipulated to perform a specific function.

In adults, stem cells are found in tissues including fat and bone marrow, and these can be turned into cell types.

One technique that the Abu Dhabi Stem Cell Centre plans to implement is haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, which involves stem cells being removed from an individual who is due to have cancer treatment.

The cells are then processed in a laboratory and injected into the patient after they have undergone chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

In this way, they can replace stem cells destroyed by the treatment, allowing a patient to tolerate a higher dose of therapy.

Dr Ventura says that similar treatments were applicable to most cancers of the blood as well as cancers that produce solid tumours.

There are many of these therapies still in research stage, but if you conquer this research, you can have a programme in which you can ... treat many kinds of cancers at the same time in one centre, he said.

The reality is that cell therapy is curing cancer We need to improve this therapy and make it available for many other people.

The future for the stem cells lies in regenerative medicine, in which you can treat almost all the degenerative conditions.

You can create in the future, if you have the right technologies, even artificial organs.

Set up with private sector funding in collaboration with the UAE authorities, the Abu Dhabi Stem Cell Centre works closely with experts at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City.

But the institution is keen to forge further partnerships with both public and private sector medical institutions.

Currently, it operates seven days a week and has more than 100 staff, including nurses, technicians and doctors who specialise in immunology, haematology, pathology, orthopaedics, urology and radiology.

In another initiative, the facility has recently begun running Minimal Residual Disease tests, which look at how many malignant cells remain in a patients blood or bone marrow.

These tests are useful for people with a variety of blood cancers, including lymphoma, leukaemia and myeloma. But they require fresh samples from the patient, so the lack of UAE testing facilities has, until now, required patients to travel abroad.

We try to implement the tests here in the Abu Dhabi Stem Cell Centre so that the patient does not need to travel anymore, said Dr Ventura.

Updated: June 17, 2020 04:31 PM

Follow this link:
Coronavirus: inside the UAE stem cell centre working to treat Covid-19 - The National

Health tech is an undisputed leader in the startup landscape in Belgium outranking industries such as fintech and manufacturing. There has been a persistent growth in the health tech startups in the country since the past decade. Not only startups but also in the scaleup ecosystem, healthcare is a leader in Belgium.

Mostly, a large number of Belgium health tech startups are spin-offs that have budded from research organisations. Furthermore, many initiatives and networks are also providing their support to healthcare entrepreneurship.

As Belgian health tech is doing pretty well over the years with several notable investments and innovative approaches, we at Silicon Canals have curated a list of fast-growing startups from Dealroom. Take a look!

Founder/s: NAFounded year: 2015Funding: 15.7 million

miDiagnostics is a spin-off from imec and a research collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University in the US. The Leuven-based healthtech company is developing a new generation of disposable tests that need only drops of blood for the detection of cells, nucleic acids, proteins, and small molecules. It uses a novel silicon-based nanofluidic processor that is capable of processing the blood sample automatically sans any pumps or valves.

With miDiagnostics, there is no need for expensive and complex instrumentation to make medical decisions. The nanofluidic processor is combined with a compact reader for screening, diagnosis and monitoring of a range of health conditions including infectious ailments.

Founder/s: Dirk Loeckx, Wim HeckeFounded year: 2011Funding: 18.4 million

Leuven-based icometrix has developed a fully automated FDA-approved and CE-certified icobrain software. Its software is already available in Europe, Brazil, Australia, Canada, and Japan. The icobrain software is deployed in over 100 hospitals and imaging centre networks all over the world and is working with the largest health tech and pharmaceutical companies as well.

icometrix touts that its icobrain software paves the way for a better and faster understanding of medical images in a more consistent and personalised manner by quantifying the volume of brain structures and abnormalities. This software is of critical importance as brain scan plays a major role in the diagnosis and treatment of various disorders in an efficient way.

Founder/s: Benedict Verhegghe, Matthieu Beule, Peter MortierFounded year: 2009Funding: 12.2 million

FEops based in Gent has developed FEops HEARTguide, which is a proprietary system to enhance transcatheter valve procedures depending on personalised computer simulations. The companys first product is TAVIguide, which is a CE-marked tech that can predict how a TAVI implant will interact with the patient-specific aortic anatomy and provide meaningful clinical insights.

FEops operates with the mission to create predictive, unique, and personalised computational modelling and simulation solutions that empower medical device manufacturers come up with superior products at a faster rate. These will enable physicians improve the clinical outcomes.

Founder/s: Jan Hellemans, Jo VandesompeleFounded year: 2007Funding: 2 million

Biogazelle specialises in high-value applications that support pharmaceutical research, diagnostic test development, and clinical trials. It applies a suite of transcriptomic and genomic technologies to validate and find RNA biomarkers and assesses safety, efficacy, and toxicity.

During the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, Biogazelle has been at the first line in the fight against the virus. It participated in a Belgian government-led consortium of academia, pharma, and biotech aimed at increasing the testing capacity in the country dramatically. The mission of this Belgian healthtech startup is to provide customised RNA gene expression services by choosing the best analytical platforms and developing data analysis software tools.

Founder/s: Jan SteyaertFounded year: 2015Funding: 41.3 million

Confo Therapeutics is a spin-off of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB). Is a drug discovery company involved in building a unique pipeline of GPCR targeted therapeutics that address unmet medical requirements. It employs its proprietary CONFO technology to lock inherently unstable functional conformations of GPRCs as a superior starting point for drug discovery.

Confo body-stabilised active state conformations of these receptors disclose previously inaccessible structural features empowering the discovery of novel agonists for better therapeutic intervention. And, recently, the company was in the headlines for appointing Paolo Therapeutics as its Chief Development Officer.

Founder/s: Etienne Sokal, John TchelingerianFounded year: 2009Funding: 133 million

Belgian startup Promethera Biosciences is one of the leading innovators in the world specialised in liver therapeutics. The company operates with the mission to bring life-saving treatments that will reduce the need for liver transplantation. It is one of the pioneers in the development of cell-based therapies that will provide both anti-fibrotic and immunomodulatory effects in the liver.

Promethera Biosciences lead clinical program is derived from its patented allogenic live-cell platform dubbed HepaStem. The startup has developed its cell therapy technologies using allogeneic stem and progenitor liver cells that are isolated, expanded, and purified from healthy human livers unsuitable for transplantation.

Founder/s: Denis DufraneFounded year: 2013Funding: 28 million

Novadip Biosciences is an advanced biopharmaceutical company focused on new generation of therapies from adipose stem cells adapted to hard and soft tissues reconstruction. It is transforming the lives of patients using its unique 3M3 tissue regeneration technology platform. Using its unique 3M3 tissue regeneration platform, which utilises adipose-derived stem cells within a 3-dimensional extracellular matrix, the company helps drive multiple product classes.

Novadips mission is to provide innovative solutions for patients with limited or no effective treatment options. Notably, it is a spin-off from Universit Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) and St. Luc University Hospital.

Founder/s: Joris WinderickxFounded year: 2002Funding: 12 million

reMYND is a spin-off from the University of Leuven. It actively drives R&D in the field of protein misfolding diseases, among others Alzheimers disease (AD) and Parkinsons disease (PD). The company consists of two independently managed units. The Drug Discovery and Development Unit focuses on disease-modifying treatments for among others AD and PD. And, the Contract Research Unit offers extensive experience in the testing of experimental Alzheimer therapies in its unique and proprietary transgenic mouse models.

Founder/s: Nader Donzel, Rudi PauwelsFounded year: 2007Funding: 320 million

Biocartis develops diagnostic systems to reduce the cost and improve the efficacy of personalised medical treatments. It provides next-generation diagnostic solutions aimed at improving clinical practice for the benefit of patients, clinicians, payers and industry.

The companys proprietary MDx Idylla platform is a fully automated, real-time system offering accurate, highly-reliable molecular information from any biological sample in virtually any setting. Idylla addresses the growing demand for personalised medicine by allowing fast and effective treatment selection and treatment progress monitoring.

Stock photo from mustafaclk/Shutterstock

Check out the innovations that took home the Blue Tulip Awards this 2020

Here is the original post:
9 best healthcare and medical startups in Belgium in 2020 - Silicon Canals