ReNeuron (LON:RENE) has published pre-clinical research that assesses the potential of exosomes created from its stem cell lines to treat diseases such as cancer.
Exosomes are nanoparticles secreted from all cells. They play a key role in the transfer of beneficial proteins called microRNAs from one cell to another.
Researchers found ReNeuron’s specially developed CTX cell line was able to “enrich” a set of these microRNAs with anti-cancer properties.
These encouraging results were contained in a leading peer-reviewed journal called PLOS ONE, which described the ground-breaking work carried out to date by the ReNeuron team.
The publication comes just a day after the company landed a £2.1mln grant from the government agency Innovate UK to further advance its exosome nanomedicine platform.
It is working with the Cell Therapy Catapult, based at two leading London hospitals, and the Department of Biochemical Engineering at University College London.
Dr John Sinden, ReNeuron’s chief scientific officer, said: "This paper demonstrates the unique characteristic of our CTX cells to preferentially enrich a set of microRNAs contained within their exosomes, which we have shown to have anti-cancer properties in pre-clinical models.
“The paper therefore represents a significant milestone in ReNeuron's ongoing research to harness the potential of exosomes derived from its proprietary stem cell lines as therapeutics in their own right and also as a system for delivering therapeutic genes."