Mesoblast posts successful results from diabetes stem cell trial

While Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) has been in the news recently over its orthopaedic and cardiovascular therapies, it’s also advancing its treatment for Type 2 diabetes.

In results announced today, Mesoblast has shown its off the shelf stem cells have significantly lowered blood sugar levels for up to eight weeks in non-human primates with Type 2 diabetes.

Read more about Mesoblast and its stem cell therapies.

The pre-clinical trial involved 17 non-human primates with dietary-induced Type 2 diabetes, with controls injected with a saline solution and others receiving one of four escalating doses of Mesoblast’s mesenchymal precursor cells (MPCs) in 0.1, 0.3, 1 and 2 million MPS/kg.

According to the company, at baseline, the high mean fasting blood glucose levels were not significantly different between any of the Type 2 diabetic groups. Over the eight week period of the study, the control group showed no significant changes in the high levels of fasting blood glucose.

In contrast, a single injection of MPCs at every dose tested significantly reduced fasting blood glucose levels as early as two weeks (p<0.001 for each dose), with a clinically meaningful reduction in fasting blood sugar levels of up to 80 mg/dl by four weeks.

There was a dose dependent effect, with the highest three MPC doses maintaining sustained reductions in fasting blood glucose over the entire eight week study period, and the lowest MPC dose being least effective.

Over the eight weeks, the groups receiving 1 and 2 million MPC/kg maintained significantly lower mean fasting blood glucose levels compared with the control group (respectively, 119 mg/dl and 110 mg/dl vs 154 mg/dl, both p<0.05).

The mean fasting blood glucose level in the group which received 0.3 million MPC/kg (130 mg/dl) was moderately lower than the controls (154 mg/dl), while the lowest dose at 0.1 million MPC/kg was without effect (160 mg/dl vs 154 mg/dl).

The MPC-treated subjects also showed a direct correlation between reductions in fasting blood glucose levels over time and reductions in circulating C-reactive protein (CRP), which is the major predictor of cardiovascular risk in Type 2 diabetic patients.

“Intravenous injection of our MPCs may not only improve blood glucose control, it may concomitantly reduce the significant risk of heart attacks and death that occurs in patients with Type 2 diabetes,” said Mesoblast CEO, Professor Silviu Itescu.

The company has an upcoming scheduled meeting with the Food and Drug Administration to discuss its Phase II clinical program for Type 2 diabetes. The company expects to commence a randomised, placebo-controlled Phase II trial in the first quarter of 2012.

Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) shares were trading at $7.70 as of midday, down 3.9% for the day, and continuing their slide over the past two weeks in relatively high volume trading, down 20% from the October 27 price of $9.55.