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What Makes Stem Cell Medicines Different from Trad？
With advances in medical science, the ways we treat disease are continuously evolving. Traditional medical treatments such as medications, surgeries, radiation, lifestyle intervention, have helped countless people suffering diseases. Such conventional medical approach typically focus on managing symptoms, removing diseased tissue, or correcting abnormalities.
Recently, stem cell medicines are changing this paradigm. Rather than managing symptoms, stem cell medicines possess therapeutic potential to repair and regenerate damaged tissues, enabling treatments based more on healing than just managing.
Limitations of Traditional Therapies
1. Small Molecule Drugs
Drugs such as small molecules remain the most common form of treatment in modern medicine—for example, antibiotics to fight infections, painkillers to relieve discomfort, and corticosteroids to suppress inflammation. While these medications can alleviate symptoms, conventional treatments rarely promote tissue or organ regeneration.
For instance, patients with arthritis often use NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) to reduce pain and inflammation. However, these drugs do not regenerate cartilage, so disease progression may continue. Moreover, long-term use of such medications may cause serious side effects, including osteoporosis, elevated blood sugar, and liver damage.
2. Surgical Treatment
When diseases progress to advanced stages, surgery is often considered the only treatment option. For example, patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) who reach Kellgren–Lawrence (KL) grade III–IV are frequently advised to undergo total knee replacement (TKR); otherwise, symptom relief is limited to pain medications.
In other chronic diseases such as liver cirrhosis, organ transplantation is often required to replace severely damaged organs and address the root cause of dysfunction. While potentially lifesaving, the surgical procedures are highly invasive, carry risks of complications, and require prolonged recovery periods. For organ transplantation, it also involves major challenges such as donor organ shortages and the need for compatibility matching. Moreover, transplant recipients must cope with lifelong immunosuppressive therapy, along with ongoing risks of rejection, infection, and other treatment-related burdens.
The Breakthrough of Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapies: From Symptom Management to Addressing the Root Causes of Disease
1. Self-renewal and Differentiation
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) possess abilities to self-renew, differentiate into multiple cell lineages . For example, when administered into an arthritic joint, MSCs can not only alleviate pain and improve knee function but also differentiate into chondrocyte-like cells and support the regeneration of damaged cartilage.
2. Multiple Mechanisms of Action
In addition to differentiating into designated cell types, MSCs exert therapeutic effect through secreting growth factors and exosomes, modulating immune responses, and support the regeneration of damaged tissue microenvironments. For example, in the treatment of liver cirrhosis, MSCs can release hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), which can promote liver tissue regeneration, enhance hepatic function, reduce inflammation, and help slow disease progression.
3. Low Immunogenicity
Another advantage of MSCs is their relatively low risk of immune rejection, due to their low expression of HLA-DR. Consequently, both autologous and properly processed allogeneic MSCs generally do not elicit significant immune responses, unlike organ transplantation. In addition, MSCs possess immunomodulatory properties that can further reduce inflammation and support tissue repair. Importantly, the therapeutic effects of MSCs may persist for months, unlike many conventional small-molecule drugs that require continuous dosing, thereby enhancing patient accessibility and convenience.
GWOXI has developed four stem cell medicines in clinical trial
- Chronic Stroke (GXNPC1®): Promotes recovery of damaged brain tissue, improving paralysis and speech deficits in the chronic stage.
- Knee Osteoarthritis (GXCPC1®): Repairs joint cartilage, reduces pain, and restores mobility.
- Type I Diabetes (GXIPC1®): Repairs pancreatic islet cells, modulates autoimmunity, and enhances insulin secretion.
- Liver Cirrhosis (GXHPC1®): Repairs damaged liver cells and slows disease progression by reducing fibrosis.
References
- Wang, Shihua et al. “Clinical applications of mesenchymal stem cells.” Journal of hematology & oncology vol. 5 19. 30 Apr. 2012, doi:10.1186/1756-8722-5-19
- Squillaro, Tiziana et al. “Clinical Trials With Mesenchymal Stem Cells: An Update.” Cell transplantation vol. 25,5 (2016): 829-48. doi:10.3727/096368915X689622