Renovo's Juvista completes another 'successful' phase II trial

 

Renovo licensed the worldwide development and commercialisation rights for Juvista, to global specialty biopharmaceutical company, Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPGY, TSX: SHQ) in June 2007, with the exception of the European Union where Renovo retained all rights.

So is it available to the public now? God, please. Anything.

I know that this won't mean much for acne scarring, but it will for my stretch marks. Noticeably less visible surgical scars... that would make a difference for me.

I wish Won Won!!! If Juvista was about to be released to the public believe me you would know it...I think the majority of the posters on here would be going crazy with happiness. Unfortunately this announcement relates to the results concerning the Phase II trials. Renovo still has to start and carry out the Phase III trials (which will involve many more people being tested), take slightly longer and can often throw up some anomalies that could put the whole drug development into jeopardy (but I think this would be unlikely).

Phase III trials are most likely going to be completed by September of 2008 (next year) then the results need to be accumulated and examined which takes another month or so. After this, if Renovo is happy then the company will then file for FDA approval which can taken another year or two. So if all goes according to plan the estimated release date of Juvista is most likely going to be around 2009 - at best!

It's a long hard wait for us sufferers here unfortunately, which is why Anna and myself have been trying so hard to get hold of some human recombinant TGFb3 ourselves but this is proving trickier than we thought .

I'm sorry I couldn't provide you with better news.

Yes indeed, for surgical scars Juvista/Juvidex will be a Godsend. If your stretch marks are on your stomach Won Won you should be able to have a tummy tuck and they'll just be cut away and Juvista/Juvidex should keep the surgical scars to a bare minimum...

On another front which I had thought showed promise, there was a bit of a setback... Remember I have been going on and on about the MRL mouse and how it regenerates perfectly those holes punched in its ears? Anyway, I found a study where they placed incisional and excisional wounds on the MRL mouse's back instead of its ears. Unfortunately, those wounds healed with scarring I am sorry to say. I am still holding out hope as there are many fronts to this battle!

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/...000001/art00014

I agree with you that it wouldn't be a magic bullet for scars as i don't there is such a thing. I'm under the impression juvista doesn't claim to prevent the formation of a surgical scar, rather greatly improve its potential appearance and pigment. I think if your skin was going to depress it would do so regardless of whether you used this product or not.

 

Exactly what I was going to post!! People on here need to understand that depressed acne scars are there for life, you go to your grave with them. They are now just as much a part of you as your eye color. I have spent thousand and thousand - silicone injections dermabrasions, excisions- anything and everything. And not ONE ounce of visible improvement!!

 

We'll said. I thinks it's kind of sad these people are spending hard earned money on trying to get rid of acne scarring. A better option would be to invest that money let it compound and you may have the chance for a nice retirement. But people keep trying to undo things from the past. The past is the past. Let it go. I know it sounds simple but maybe it's not for some, me included.

Here are some articles you lot might or might not be interested in:

This one might piss people off saying this is a scarless healing thread, but whilst we are anticipating for scarless healing have any of you thought of or heard of the microskin system:

http://www.dynamicbusiness.com/articles/ar...lowndes-13.html

In the next article Linda Lowness talks a sentence or two about how Professor Kimble inspires her, thus it gives a tiny little insight into him.

http://www.dynamicbusiness.com/articles/10...da-lowndes.html

And here is an article that might be welcome on here: it is about how the protein decorin neutralized the effects of a protein that causes scar tissue formation in muscles. Which I'm assuming would work on other soft tissues like skin????

http://www.mda.org/research/070912musclerepair.html

Cheers.

This one might piss people off saying this is a scarless healing thread, but whilst we are anticipating for scarless healing have any of you thought of or heard of the microskin system:

 

http://www.dynamicbusiness.com/articles/ar...lowndes-13.html

It shouldn't piss anyone off at all Kirk, I think this is very useful information as Microskin can act as a form of temporary solution while we all wait for the 'real' drugs a few years from now. Microskin does seem very beneficial for those with redness, rosacea, acne inflammation and slight scarring. I would be interested in how it actually works, how the skin reacts while it is on, the ingredients of the product, ease of application, how much it costs and whether Linda Lowness would consider selling her product online. Probably the most important question would be how good is the actual coverage, you don't exactly want to be walking around town with an obvious layer of camouflage on your face.

I look into the above issues and see what I can find.

In the next article Linda Lowness talks a sentence or two about how Professor Kimble inspires her, thus it gives a tiny little insight into him.

 

http://www.dynamicbusiness.com/articles/10...da-lowndes.html

Both Lowness and Kimble seem to be truly inspiring characters. She must have had so much drive to push her idea through to actually developing the product, seven years can take a lot out of you.

And here is an article that might be welcome on here: it is about how the protein decorin neutralized the effects of a protein that causes scar tissue formation in muscles. Which I'm assuming would work on other soft tissues like skin????

 

http://www.mda.org/research/070912musclerepair.html

It's amazing how we are seeing virtuallly every week a new substance/product is found to be able to inhibit scar tissue formation...you would think with all these great finds that we would actually have one product on the market by now. Kirk, I think you already raised the appropriate question, I wouldn't be surprised if Decorin was not able to inhibit scar formation in skin; if it was then I'm sure they would have mentioned it, or they just tested the substance on muscles. Also they are only at the "test-tube experiments and mouse experiments" stage, so anything could happen when human experiments are carried out.

But all in all it could be another product to add to our ever increasing list of substances

Thanks for the articles.

On another front which I had thought showed promise, there was a bit of a setback... Remember I have been going on and on about the MRL mouse and how it regenerates perfectly those holes punched in its ears? Anyway, I found a study where they placed incisional and excisional wounds on the MRL mouse's back instead of its ears. Unfortunately, those wounds healed with scarring I am sorry to say. I am still holding out hope as there are many fronts to this battle!

 

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/...000001/art00014

Don't worry Anna, as long as the scientist have one pathway to work with (ie the ears) then I am sure they will be able to look into ways to replicate it in other parts of the mouse's body and then in humans. In fact it might be a good thing that other parts of the mouse's body can't self-heal as it will help scientists identify the discrepancies more easily by comparing how the healing processes in different parts of the body.

Vavelta

I know this has been mentioned previously but this product just coming out in UK is Isolagen but with an external donor. I have been reading up and apparently it doesn't get rejected by the body as a foreign entity and works just the same as Isolagen.

Now, I remember being told by a credible source that the high cost of Isolagen (‚£2,500) was because of the process of taking a skin sample from an individual and getting the fibroplasts to multiply in the first place. Obviously an external donor would reduce this cost dramatically as a single donor would produce the required fibroplasts for say 100 people.

I see today the cost of a round of treatment - ‚£3000

they are trying to cover the research costs. if fibroplast treatment was say ‚£1000 a pop then it would be great, I would keep getting it. But ‚£3000 is too much. I am disappointed.

Vavelta

 

they are trying to cover the research costs. if fibroplast treatment was say ‚£1000 a pop then it would be great, I would keep getting it. But ‚£3000 is too much. I am disappointed.

I agree. That is too costly. I'm thinking that the popularity of such a healing technique will start to snowball in the UK soon enough and seeing as how it's so early on, the the donors are limited. More demand will mean more donors which will open the doors to more people. Wouldn't this reduce prices by a bit? I'm thinkin by the time this hits America in late 2008 - early 2009, there will be a dramatic price difference.

Pure and simple...this sounds like gouging. Here in the US we pay for things three times. 1.Much of the research is conducted in public universities, 2. by students who are attending school on grants, and much of the funding comes from charitable donations. 3. Then we get the honor of paying for it again as a service. This is why we need to establish treatment cooperatives. I'd be amazed if this cost is justified. I'm still looking into the treatment / research foundation idea. I'm not sure if the best way to go is a charitable foundation or a cooperative. Any attorneys on the board???

I don't know if the cost they are assessing on this is linked to donors. Isn't it made from foreskins??? Are they getting more expensive???

Kirk,

I'm just now going back through the posts and read about microskin. It looks really interesting! One always wonders when they say something covers scars what they mean by "scars". It has been my experience with indented scars that they sometimes look worse with make-up. However, if this really mimics the texture of skin it would be actually something that you might be able to fill a scar with.

Also, thanks for your posts on Decorin!

Neca,

You always can take a positive look at things. Thanks for that! I almost cried when I read about the MRL mouse scarring on its back...

Thanks all!

Anna

So just a question because I don't have any clue how skin heals really.

What were to happen if those top couple of layers of skin were removed and something like ReCell was sprayed onto the covering? Even if the scar was at a little more of a depth than whatever amount was removed, would the skin choose to heal normally over this problem area? Or does the scar tissue need to be completely eliminated first?

Vavelta

 

they are trying to cover the research costs. if fibroplast treatment was say ‚£1000 a pop then it would be great, I would keep getting it. But ‚£3000 is too much. I am disappointed.

I agree. That is too costly. I'm thinking that the popularity of such a healing technique will start to snowball in the UK soon enough and seeing as how it's so early on, the the donors are limited. More demand will mean more donors which will open the doors to more people. Wouldn't this reduce prices by a bit? I'm thinkin by the time this hits America in late 2008 - early 2009, there will be a dramatic price difference.

 

well thats the thing won won

The FDA are no fools.

And they are highly sceptical over the efficacy of fibroplast treatment demanding that companies like Isolagen proves its efficiacy for wrinkles before they approve it. Bottom line is that it doesn't work well for wrinkles hence why it never got approved in USA. I do take my hats off to the FDA for that. Loadsa people trying to get their money back in UK. But for scars it does work. I have had isolagen and for non deep scars it worked a treat (like what most of u lot have). But for the proper deep boys in the fat layer, it didn't work.

FDA should approve it for scar use not wrinkle. But of course these companies want it for filling baby boomers wrinkles. Cos that is where the money is. lots of demand.

Well aren't these baby boomers a selfish lot. Can't they see how much uglier and detrimental a scar is over a wrinkle? It's common freakin sense here. If the product does do well in the scar dept., there needs to be more of a push for the approval from the likes of us. That's why I think our fundraising money should go into educating the masses about acne scars. Commercials maybe? Whatever gets this stuff to us faster.

Wouldn't a faster release for something like this on US soil lead to something huge and cost-effective if popularized in all the right places? Wouldn't something that works even better that is in the works be more likely to reveal itself sooner at the same time? I think we just need to spread the word.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070919/hl_nm/...FWsM1Mo6DIE1vAI

Cells that make sperm make stem cells, too:

study By Maggie Fox, Health and Science EditorWed Sep 19, 4:05 PM ET

Stem cells that normally make sperm can be taught to make other tissues as well, perhaps offering men a medical repair kit, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

They found a way to easily pick the cells out from other tissue in the testicles and to grow them into batches big enough to use medically.

This provides a new source of stem cells, the body's master cells, which experts hope can be used to treat injuries, replace diseased tissue and perhaps even regenerate organs.

Dr. Shahin Rafii of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute worked with mice, and is starting work now to find the same cells in humans.

"Some hurdles remain, of course -- we have to replicate these findings in humans, and we haven't discovered the exact 'switch' that would allow us to control (their) development on demand," Rafii said in a statement.

"Nevertheless, it appears that these unique specialized spermatogonial cells could be an easily obtained and manipulated source of stem cells with exactly the same capability to form new tissues that we see in embryonic stem cells."

On Tuesday, the National Institutes of Health said it would follow a presidential executive order to encourage the search for various sources of stem cells. President George W. Bush opposes the use of most embryonic stem cells -- those taken from tiny human embryos.

Rafii's is one of many new sources being worked on by researchers, who have found so-called adult stem cells in blood, bone marrow and other tissue. Other, more primitive cells have been found in the placenta and amniotic fluid.

HEART, MUSCLE CELLS

In general, the more primitive the stem cell, the more flexible it is and the more various tissues it can be used to make.

"Adult stem cells are much more difficult to work with," Rafii said in a telephone interview. "But now we have another potential source and in this paper we have delineated all the things we have to do to get these amazing stem cells."

A small little sample of flesh from the testicles should provide enough cells to work with, Rafii said.

Once isolated, they grew the mouse cells into blood vessel, heart and muscle cells. These could provide a perfectly matched transplant for the patient himself and perhaps others as well.

"They can also be transferred to other individuals who are a genetic match. You could even give it to a sister if they are genetically compatible," Rafii said.

The cells should be robust in most men, the researchers believe.

"Normally, the spermatogonial progenitor cell is committed to only that function, and they're remarkably efficient, keeping men fertile well into advanced age," said Dr. Marco Seandel, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

A small little sample of flesh from the testicles should provide enough cells to work with.

Ugh. Here I was hoping that I could just donate some sperm to myself. Of course they have to cut me.

Great post Anna!

Also, did you see my question from above? I'm pretty sure of the answer, but I just wanted to make sure:

What were to happen if those top couple of layers of skin were removed and something like ReCell was sprayed onto the covering? Even if the scar was at a little more of a depth than whatever amount was removed, would the skin choose to heal normally over this problem area? Or does the scar tissue need to be completely eliminated first?

I was kind of thinking about my stretch marks here. If the top few layers of the "scar" were removed, could the healthy skin act as a blanket once healed from such a treatment as "spray-on-skin"? I'm a dreamer, but hey...

Won Won,

I still think something needs to be done to suppress the TGFB1. Even in incisional wounds where no tissue is missing or stretched (as in stretch marks) you will have scarring because of the TGFB1. I think something like Juvista and Juvidex along with ReCell might just give a pretty good cosmetic result. The reason with ReCell they dermabrade or laser first is to get through the scar tissue to allow a bed to accept the new cells.

Too bad they aren't all working together!

Anna

Yes, too bad. There is always a chance that you could work with a surgeon to strike up a deal. Maybe they could be used together... I'll be the first case to show the vanishing capabilities of such a team.

So to elaborate, you are saying that after they dermabrade or laser, the inhibitors (Juvista/ Juvidex) should be used to stop the scarring from happening again? With these precautions in place, the scar will be reduced even more so after the ReCell process?

That sounds logical.

Also very expensive. I'm so willing though.

"So to elaborate, you are saying that after they dermabrade or laser, the inhibitors (Juvista/ Juvidex) should be used to stop the scarring from happening again? With these precautions in place, the scar will be reduced even more so after the ReCell process?"

Yes, I believe so. It should allow the keratinocytes to transplant more effectively on the surface which has just been dermabraded/lasered because they wouldn't be blocked by as much scar tissue which would be trying to form.

I thought I'd again list the article which really gave me hope that important advances were being made. The first leg of the regenerative study should wrap up Summer '08.

http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=4399

Thanks,

Anna

Yes, I believe so. It should allow the keratinocytes to transplant more effectively on the surface which has just been dermabraded/lasered because they wouldn't be blocked by as much scar tissue which would be trying to form.

So I just want to clarify that you understand what I'm trying to comprehend here.

Could new skin harvested by ReCell and sprayed on that demabraded/ lasered site grow on top of the skin/ scar tissue of a stretch mark? Since the stretch mark is actually damaged in the dermis, I'm wanting to discover a method that practically eliminates the the need for any invasive surgery which requires an incision that deep into the skin.

Yes, I believe so. It should allow the keratinocytes to transplant more effectively on the surface which has just been dermabraded/lasered because they wouldn't be blocked by as much scar tissue which would be trying to form.

So I just want to clarify that you understand what I'm trying to comprehend here.

 

Could new skin harvested by ReCell and sprayed on that demabraded/ lasered site grow on top of the skin/ scar tissue of a stretch mark? Since the stretch mark is actually damaged in the dermis, I'm wanting to discover a method that practically eliminates the the need for any invasive surgery which requires an incision that deep into the skin.

 

If what the manufacturer is saying is true then yes, but this still will not be regeneration. This will be implanting new keratinocytes, which are missing or your body couldn't accomodate the quantity needed to keep up with your stretching skin. I imagine that at best it will be like a dusting of healthy skin cells. The problem with stretch marks is that they are that shiny fibrous scar tissue. I imagine yours are all the way to the surface. On some people you can kind of see them but they aren't really white and silvery, because the stretching never came all the way to the skin surface. I envision that this is what ReCell could make your stretch marks look like-a stretch mark that never quite went to the very outer layers. This would be an improvement but it wouldn't be perfect. We need to find a way to get rid of that darn scar tissue and then prevent it from reforming.

It looks like cholesterol inhibits TGF Beta (I assume Type 3) which is implicated in atherosclerosis. More reasons this substance will be researched even further!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cholesterol Prompts Atherosclerosis Via Inhibition of TGF-Beta

Reuters Health Information 2007. A 2007 Reuters Ltd.

Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

By David Douglas

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Oct 02 - Suppression of the activity of cellular transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta appears to be the mechanism underlying cholesterol's facilitation of atherosclerotic processes, researchers report in an online publication in the Journal of Cell Science.

"The finding that cholesterol causes atherosclerosis by attenuating TGF-beta responsiveness in vascular and blood cells could lead to the development of novel and effective therapies for atherosclerosis," senior investigator Dr. Jung San Huang told Reuters Health.

Dr. Huang of Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Missouri and colleagues note that TGF-beta performs a variety of beneficial anti-inflammatory and other functions and this cytokine is believed to be protective against atherosclerosis.

In a series of experiments, the researchers found that cholesterol alone, or in LDL and VLDL, attenuated TGF-beta responsiveness in all cell types studied. Cholesterol also led to the rapid degradation of TGF-beta and thus suppressed TGF-beta signaling.

Conversely, fluvastatin and lovastatin and the cholesterol-depleting agents beta-cyclodextrin and nystatin enhanced responsiveness and facilitated TGF-beta signaling.

Moreover, the team also found suppression of TGF-beta in the aortic endothelium of mice fed a high cholesterol diet.

In light of these findings, continued Dr. Huang, "therapeutic agents or nutritional supplements that enhance or promote TGF-beta responsiveness or endogenous TGF-beta activity should provide a novel strategy to treat or prevent atherosclerosis."

J Cell Sci 2007.

Scarless healing has already been used in animals for over five years and in half a million people. It hasn't been accepted into mainstream medicine due mostly to paradigm shift.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1965

http://www.myfoxcleveland.com/myfox/pages/...mp;pageId=3.5.1

http://www.acell.com/

Hi fivetotenyears,

Thanks for the post. I know this is a long thread but we have talked about A-Cell powder here. It is an ECM (extra cellular matrix) and it is approved for human use as a medical device. I know that the military is at this time engaged in studies using this powder in an attempt to regenerate finger tips in soldiers who have lost digits in combat. Essentially, it is supposed to act as a bio-electric patch so that the bodies regenerative signals can get through. It remains to be seen if this will help us here or if this would always require immediate application at the time of wounding. I have seen pictures of gunshot wounds treated with A-Cell and while they healed better there was still scarring.

It is another piece of the puzzle!

Thanks again-

Anna