VSTA Unlocking the Power of Stem Cells to Revive Shelved but Promising Drug Candidates
VistaGen Therapeutics has developed a unique stem cell technology platform called Human Clinical Trials in a Test Tube™ – it’s a fairly simple name representing a complex and innovative bioassay system with the ability to predict potential toxicity and metabolism issues of promising drug candidates before they are ever tested in human subjects.
What makes the platform unique is its capability for predictive toxicology early in the development cost curve, before millions of dollars and research hours are spent on the clinical development of a drug that may or may not pass safety and efficacy tests.
VistaGen believes that by utilizing the Human Clinical Trials in a Test Tube™, pharmaceutical companies can revisit substantial value for failed drug candidates. VistaGen’s goal is to use its stem cell technology to create a pipeline of new, proprietary drug rescue variants of once-promising candidates that were shelved due to liver or heart toxicity concerns.
So why stem cells? First and foremost, stem cells have the amazing capacity to self-renew and develop into mature, specialized cells that make up the various tissues and organs of the human body. Pluripotent stem cells take it even further. These cells can be grown indefinitely in vitro and developed into any of more than 200 specialized cell types in the human body. These capabilities are what make pluripotent stem cells so valuable to medical researchers and therapeutic applications.
Human embryonic stem cells (hES Cells) are pluripotent stem cells derived from the excess embryos that developed from eggs in an in vitro fertilization clinic and then donated. hES cells are not derived from eggs fertilized in a woman’s body.
However, over the years, developments in stem cell research have made it possible to obtain pluripotent stem cell lines from an individual without the use of embryos. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPS Cells) are adult cells that have undergone genetic reprograming to behave like hES Cells – these cells express genes necessary for maintaining the pluripotent property of hES Cells.
VistaGen believes the pluripotent property of these cells is the key for creating its human cell-based bioassays to develop its drug rescue efforts.
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