STTR Phase I: Allogeneic Stem Cell Delivery for Efficacy-Enhanced Equine Biotherapeutics

STTR 第一阶段：用于增强疗效的马生物治疗的同种异体干细胞递送

• 批准号: 2038460
• 负责人: Benjamin Noren
• 金额: $ 25.6万
• 依托单位: CellDrop Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-05-01 至 2022-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2038460&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Allogeneic; Stem; Cell

The broader impact /commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project involves the development of technology to extend the therapeutic window of cell-based tissue regeneration therapies. This technology will significantly enhance the scientific understanding of cellular therapies, and enable the healing of injuries more rapidly and less invasively than current techniques. A significant need for this technology exists in the competition horse market. 98% of competitive horses suffer from soft tissue injuries and more than 80% develop suspensory ligament defects. Injuries to suspensory ligaments can take years to heal and are the leading cause of missed performances owners. The proposed technology provides veterinarians a means of healing suspensory ligament injuries significantly faster, resulting in fewer missed performances, reduced financial losses, and most importantly, improved quality of life for the animal. This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will address the problem of slow healing suspensory ligament injuries for racehorses. 98% of vets use stem cell injections to aid in recovery of these injuries, but this strategy has limited efficacy due to poor viability of injected cells and short cell retention times at the site of injury. This problem is addressed by developing technology to preserve and localize mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) at an injury site through delivery in inert, injectable hydrogel microparticles. The research objectives of this proposal are twofold; 1. Quantitively assessing metrics of cell viability and stromal cell-like behavior of hydrogel microencapsulated cells and compare them to baseline unencapsulated cell metrics, and 2. Provide explicit evidence that the encapsulation process localizes cells and preserves their viability, is nontoxic and non-immunogenic, and demonstrates markers of superior tissue regeneration in a small animal model similar to that of its intended commercial use. This study is expected to enable the quantitative elucidation of cell viability and biomolecular response to encapsulation in hydrogel microenvironments and establish preliminary safety and efficacy results of hydrogel-encapsulated MSCs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这一小型企业技术转让(STTR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力包括开发技术，以延长基于细胞的组织再生疗法的治疗窗口。这项技术将显著提高对细胞疗法的科学理解，并使创伤的愈合比目前的技术更快、更具侵入性。在竞争激烈的马匹市场上，对这项技术的需求很大。98%的竞技马匹患有软组织损伤，80%以上的马匹出现悬吊韧带缺陷。悬吊韧带的受伤可能需要数年时间才能痊愈，这是导致老板缺席比赛的主要原因。这项拟议的技术为兽医提供了一种显著加快修复悬吊韧带损伤的方法，从而减少了错过表演的次数，减少了经济损失，最重要的是，提高了动物的生活质量。这个小型企业技术转让(STTR)第一阶段项目将解决赛马悬吊韧带损伤愈合缓慢的问题。98%的兽医使用干细胞注射来帮助这些损伤的恢复，但这种策略的效果有限，因为注入的细胞活性较差，且细胞在损伤部位的保留时间较短。解决这一问题的方法是开发技术，通过在惰性、可注射的水凝胶微粒中传递来保存和定位损伤部位的间充质干细胞(MSCs)。这项建议的研究目标有两个：1.定量评估水凝胶微囊化细胞的细胞活性和基质细胞样行为的指标，并将它们与基线的未囊化细胞指标进行比较；2.提供明确的证据，证明包埋过程定位细胞并保持其活性，无毒和非免疫原性，并在类似于其预期商业用途的小动物模型中展示了优越的组织再生标志。这项研究有望定量阐明水凝胶微环境中细胞活性和生物分子对微囊化的反应，并建立水凝胶微囊化MSCs的初步安全性和有效性结果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。