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 The Haifa-based company said they have developed a placenta-based
cell therapy injection that can fully cure patients with multiple
organ failure caused by high radiation exposure.
Pluristem Therapeutics' Vice President of Medical and Clinical
Affairs Dr. Esther Lukasiewicz Hagai said cells grown from placentas
donated by women who had undergone a C-section, are harvested to
create a cocktail of therapeutic proteins which combat potentially
lethal damage to the lungs, skin, bone marrow and gastrointestinal
tract caused by radiation exposure.
"We've been investigating the placenta for the last decade and we
have discovered that the placenta cells have unique properties that
can help the body to recover after exposure to high level of
radiation," Lukasiewicz Hagai said.
"We are injecting these cells to the bodies' muscles...that will
help the bone marrow to recover after radiation."
The effect of the treatment has been tested on different levels of
radiation, including a level of radiation that could cause up to 70
percent mortality rate, Lukasiewicz Hagai said.
In January Pluristem's PLX-R18 therapy was cleared by the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) for clinical trials in animals.
Clinical trials which have been conducted both in the United States,
with the National Institute of Health and at Hadassah-University
Medical Center in Jerusalem, have shown a nearly 100 percent
recovery rate in animals exposed to radiation.
Yaky Yanay, President and Chief Operations Officer at Pluristem
Therapeutics and co-chairman of Israel Advanced Technology
Industries (IATI), said clinical trials have so far shown optimal
results if the vial is injected within 48 hours of exposure to
lethal radiation.
"It will be very easy to use, off-the-shelf and readily available,"
Yanay said adding that it requires no DNA matches prior to
administration into the muscle.
The only other available therapy is bone marrow transplant which
requires DNA compatibility and is costly, he added.
In March 2011 the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered the
worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years earlier, following
an earthquake and tsunami.
The Tokyo Electric Power Co is still struggling to bring the
situation inside its plant under control. It has estimated removing
the melted fuel from the wrecked reactors and cleaning up the site
will cost tens of billions of dollars and take decades to complete.
Pluristem Therapeutics has partnered with Japan's Fukushima Medical
University to test its placental-derived cellular therapy for
radiation treatment and has been asked to join the United States
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases program.
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The goal of U.S. authorities, Yanay said, is to stockpile the
treatment in the U.S. in case of a nuclear catastrophe.
"My wish that our therapy was available five years ago when we had
the Fukushima disaster or 30 years ago when we had the Chernobyl not
mentioning the Second World War which was a significant exposure to
radiation," said Yanay.
"Our goal is to develop...a counter measure biological
defense....for Acute Radiation Syndrome for any radiation event
across the globe. It can be either a terror attack or nuclear
melting but I hope that our therapy will be there".
Pluristem's Chief Executive Zami Aberman said the uniqueness of the
therapy treatment is in its ability to treat multiple organ failure
and bring full recovery from the high radiation exposure.
"In radiation catastrophe the organ that are exposed to radiation
are many, not only one of them. The fact that the cells have the
capacity to treat multi organ failures give us the unique
therapeutic potential," Aberman said.
The company said it received the rights to commercialize the
placenta-based cell therapy products in 2007.
Israel sees a potential nuclear threat from Iran and has two nuclear
reactors of its own. Israel is widely believed to have an atomic
arsenal.
"We are living in an area which have a variety of threats including
nuclear bombs and radiation catastrophes so we developed the product
in mind that those may happen. When the Fukushima disaster happened
it inspired our feeling that we have to do it stronger and quicker
and we developed an aggressive plan in order to bring the product
into awareness and today with NIH (National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases) support and the cooperation of the Fukushima
center, we strongly believe that we can bring the product to cure
many patients," said Aberman.
The next phase is to develop treatments for disorders like Crohn's
Disease and other products to treat the central nervous system
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