BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc (BCLI)

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BrainStorm Announces Groundbreaking Pre-Clinical Study of NurOwn® derived Exosome-Based Treatment for COVID-19 ARDS

July 23 2020 - 07:00AM

BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: BCLI), a leading developer of adult stem cell therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, announced today that it has successfully completed its first milestone in developing an innovative exosome-based platform-technology for the treatment severe COVID-19 infection.

COVID-19 induced pneumonia carries a high fatality rate and has been associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Currently, there is no effective treatment strategy to prevent or reverse ARDS, a type of respiratory failure associated with widespread inflammation and lung damage mediated by dysregulated cytokine production.

Exosomes are nano-sized (30–150 nm) vesicles secreted by all cell types. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) derived exosomes have been suggested as a potential treatment for ARDS due to their ability to penetrate into deep tissues, effectively deliver bioactive molecules to target cells and mitigate the inflammatory response. MSC exosomes may be delivered intravenously or directly into the lung via intratracheal administration.

Results from a study in a mouse model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ARDS showed that intratracheal administration of NurOwn® (MSC-NTF cells) derived exosomes resulted in a statistically significant improvement in multiple lung parameters. These included the clinically relevant factors: functional lung recovery, reduction in pro-inflammatory cytokines and most importantly, attenuation of lung damage. Moreover, MSC-NTF cell derived exosomes exhibited a superior effect when compared to treatment with exosomes derived from naïve mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) from the same donor. BrainStorm intends to accelerate submission of these important results to peer-reviewed medical journals.

The preclinical experiment demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in lung disease severity score (p=0.03) (based on the American Thoracic Society Documents, 2011; Matute-Bello et al., Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 44;725-738, 2011) and vastly improved lung histology following intratracheal administration of NurOwn (MSC-NTF) exosomes compared to MSC exosomes.

A graph accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/224bd3d0-90a3-4850-8b56-854d808c6386

An image accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e5276300-106b-4a35-9ef5-7d8907561db9

To-date, BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics has focused its clinical development on the application of the NurOwn technology platform to neurodegenerative disorders. Given these important pre-clinical results, the Company will revisit its strategy to determine if and when to proceed with a clinical trial in ARDS.

Dr. Revital Aricha, VP of Research & Development at BrainStorm, will discuss the results on the company’s second quarter 2020 earnings call and corporate update, scheduled for Wednesday August 5th, at 8.00am ET.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/brainstorm-announces-groundbreaking-pre-clinical-110000478.html