00:00Hi, it's Dr. David Green, founder and CEO of R3 Stem Cell, the global leader in regenerative therapies.
00:05So we're getting a lot of questions these days about iPSCs, which stands for Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.
00:12Now, pluripotent stem cells is the holy grail.
00:15Those are stem cells that can turn into any different cell type in the human body.
00:19We've been trying to obtain those and get those to be used clinically for over 20 years now.
00:24And, unfortunately, iPSCs are really no exception.
00:27As far as the what are they, well, they were first discovered back in 2007 by a Japanese researcher, Yamanaka,
00:33who won a Nobel Prize for his efforts.
00:36Here we are 20 years later, and they're still not being used clinically yet outside of a few research trials.
00:43So what are they?
00:45Well, basically, the theory, the reality is if you take somebody's skin cell or any type of specialty cell and
00:52you de-differentiate it,
00:54turn it back into a stem cell because the specialty cell still has all of that DNA from when it
01:03was a stem cell.
01:04It's just dormant.
01:05So with what's called transcription genes, scientists have been able to take them back to being stem cells again.
01:14And that's great because you don't need an aborted fetus.
01:18You don't need an embryo from an in vitro fertilization procedure.
01:22Then, in theory, that's from, say, Mrs. Smith.
01:25And then you've given back, Mrs. Smith, all these stem cells to help with her kidney disease or what have
01:32you.
01:32We've run into a lot of problems over the years with trying to do that.
01:36One, it causes tumors.
01:39It causes rejection.
01:42Also, even though you've taken this skin cell back to a stem cell and you could turn it into all
01:49these different specialty cells,
01:50renal, neuron, chondrocyte, things like that, it still wants to go back to being a skin cell.
01:56There's some bias there.
01:58Also, this whole process, ridiculously expensive.
02:01So, you know, for instance, we charge for 100 million mesenchymal stem cells in Mexico, $8,850.
02:09This might end up costing $100,000 or more.
02:12Clinical trials right now, this is how they're being done.
02:15They're doing this process, and instead of giving these to patients,
02:20they're differentiating these stem cells into the specific need for patients, okay?
02:28So one of the latest studies, they took maybe eight patients or so,
02:32and they moved these into the neuron category and then implanted those into the brains of patients directly,
02:40and it looks like they're actually producing dopamine.
02:44So they're dopaminergic-producing neurons.
02:47Is that better than the MSCs that we use now?
02:53That is still not determined because we actually get really good results with using mesenchymal stem cells,
03:00intrathecal, and IV to help with dopamine production for those with Parkinson's.
03:05So the win is indeterminate.
03:08We don't know if these are going to become part of routine clinical practice,
03:13and if so, is it going to be so ridiculously priced because of the efficiency problems with production,
03:19it's not going to be truly available except to a very rare subpopulation of people around the world.
03:26All right, there you go, an overview on IPSCs.
03:28Visit us online today at r3stemcell.com,
03:32and then call us to set up your free consultation for any one of our 80 centers in over eight
03:38countries
03:38at plus1-844-GET-STEM,
03:42or email us, info at r3stemcell.com.
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