AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. a biotechnology company focused on developing therapeutics for human aging and regeneration, announced a research collaboration with the University of California, Irvine (UCI) to explore the therapeutic potential of exosomes and other extracellular vesicles produced by neural stem cells derived from AgeX pluripotent stem cells, with the goal of developing therapies to treat adverse neurocognitive effects of cancer chemotherapy and radiation therapy on brain function. This research project seeks to address a critical unmet medical need that impacts the quality of life for millions of cancer survivors. The agreement between AgeX and UCI has been handled by the team at UCI Beall Applied Innovation.
The research will be conducted at UCI under the direction of Munjal Acharya, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the UCI Stem Cell Research Center. Dr. Acharya has been working in the field of regenerative medicine and cancer therapy-induced brain injury for the past 10 years. Currently, Dr. Acharya’s laboratory is studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms of radiation-induced brain injury, regenerative therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, and chemobrain.
Exosomes are nano-sized extracellular vesicles, secreted by cells, which contain a cargo of lipids, proteins and/or nucleic acids, and which participate in communication between cells. Dr. Acharya will search for exosomes and other extracellular vesicles in samples of cell culture-conditioned media used at UCI to derive neural stem cells from AgeX pluripotent stem cells in a program sponsored by AgeX seeking therapies for Huntington’s disease and other neurological disorders. Using mouse models of brain cancer therapy, Dr. Acharya will determine the safety and efficacy of exosomes or other extracellular vesicles in repairing radiation- and chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairments and neuroinflammation in the brain.
“We are excited to collaborate with AgeX to test the efficacy of exosomes derived from a GMP-compliant neural stem cell line that would increase the translational feasibility of our approach to thwart this unmet medical need faced by millions of cancer survivors world-wide,” said Dr. Acharya, UCI.
The collaboration includes an opportunity for AgeX to license inventions that may arise from the research program, and to pursue clinical development and commercialization of therapies derived using those licensed inventions.
“We are delighted to support Dr. Acharya’s efforts to seek new therapies for cancer therapy-induced brain injury,” said Dr. Nafees Malik, Chief Operating Officer of AgeX. “Dr. Acharya’s work compliments efforts at UCI in the laboratory of Professor Leslie Thompson that AgeX is sponsoring to develop methods to derive neural stem cells from AgeX’s pluripotent stem cells and its PureStem technology platform for neurological disorders. Moreover, we are excited to be expanding our participation in the field of neurology, which has huge clinical and commercial potential.”