OREANDA-NEWS. September 17, 2015. The Human Stem Cells Institute (“HSCI”, MOEX: ISKJ), one of Russia’s leading biotech companies, today announced that its researchers presented results of their work at the 2015 TERMIS World Congress which took place in Boston on September 8-11, 2015.

The theme for the 2015 TERMIS World Congress was “Past, Present, Future: The Evolution of Regenerative medicine”, reflecting the impact of tissue engineering throughout the past 20 years, and focusing on the innovative technologies of the future. The agenda included 1,651 oral reports and poster papers.

HSCI delivered two reports at the Congress. The first – an oral report – was devoted to 3-year results of an international, multicenter, randomized clinical trial of a Pcmv-vegf165 (HSCI’s innovative drug Neovasculgen®) in treatment of progressive ischemia caused by atherosclerotic Peripheral Arterial Disease (results from 216 participants). The second – a poster paper “First Clinical Trial of Gene-activated Bone Graft: from Basic Studies to Opening Clinical Cases” – was chosen by the jury of international experts to be in TOP 25 of the Congress’s poster session.

According to Roman Deev, HSCI’s Chief Scientific Officer: “For the first time, HSCI’s research team attended the TERMIS World Congress in 2012. Since then we have participated in the Congress on annual basis to present our Company’s current activities and speak how we try to improve the quality and longevity of people’s lives by developing new gene- and cell-based technologies. At the 2015 TERMIS World Congress, our poster was among TOP 25 and it is great honor and responsibility for us to represent Russia and to be awarded along with the scientists from the U.S., Germany, South Korea…”

The innovative drug Neovasculgen® developed by HSCI to treat Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD), including Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI), is the first-in-class gene-therapy drug with the action mechanism which introduces a new approach to the treatment of ischemia – therapeutic angiogenesis. Containing the gene of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) embedded in a plasmid vector (carrier), Neovasculgen® stimulates the growth of collateral blood vessels (аngiogenesis) and, as a result, promotes a long-term therapeutic effect and improves patients’ quality of life.

Neovasculgen® received marketing authorization in 2011, and in 2012 was launched in the Russian market. According to the drug’s clinical trial results and more than 4-year track of its use in practical healthcare, Neovasculgen® increases the functioning capillaries number in ischemic tissues, improves the blood supply, reduces the amputation rate and mortality in patients with PAD – serious, incapacitating disease which strikes 202 million people worldwide.

One of the crucial tasks in clinical practice is to effectively treat the patients with bone defects. Frequently, reconstructive surgeries and bone grafting procedures include the use of biocompatible materials, however majority of them have limited efficacy and the results of bone grafting are hardly predictable. Today, many research groups throughout the world work on creation of new and more effective bone substitutes.

A novel approach to reconstructive surgery encompasses the use of gene technologies, when so called “gene-activated materials” are applied to support the regenerative processes in damaged bones. HSCI’s researchers combined gene construction of Neovasculgen® (plasmid DNA with gene encoding vascular endothelial growth factor) with range of bone substitutes, including octacalcium phosphate. Preclinical trials of the developed gene-activated materials in the model of rabbits’ cranial bone defects demonstrated their safety and high efficacy in activation of the reparative osteogenesis. Almost complete parietal bone defects repair was observed 90 days after implantation.

The development of gene-activated bone grafts are conducted by HSCI in collaboration with BioNova, Polystom, A.I. Burnazyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center of the FMBA of Russia, A.I. Evdokimov Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry with the support of Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises in Science and Technology.