Principal investigator of IMPACT and academic of the Universidad de los Andes, Patricia Luz, was one of those selected by the IDeA Advanced Technologies competition of the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID), to obtain funding for her project “Glycostem-sev: generation of an acellular product based on extracellular nanovesicles derived from mesenchymal stem cells induced towards a glycolytic metabolism for the treatment of osteoarthritis”.
The research, co-directed by Jorge Toledo, director of the Advanced Scientific Equipment Network of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile, is aimed at developing a therapy for osteoarthritis based on extracellular vesicles also called exosomes, obtained from umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells whose metabolism has been modified.
“In 2021 we were awarded a FONDEF where we validated at prototype scale a biopharmaceutical composed of these extracellular vesicles. The results obtained at the laboratory level showed therapeutic efficacy, with improvements in the inflammation caused by osteoarthritis and better cartilage regeneration. The objective of this new project is to scale up the production of this therapy in order to prove its efficacy and safety”, explains Patricia Luz.
The participation of the UChile Veterinary School in this research is fundamental. The treatment of osteoarthritis in racehorses is a common disease attributable to the direction of rotations at race tracks. “This allows us to treat animals that already have a disease for which there is currently no treatment, not only to test the safety of this therapy, but also to evaluate it as a clinical alternative for veterinary use,” he says.
To generate this scaling up, the project has the participation of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso through the collaboration of the Animal Cell Culture Laboratory directed by researcher Claudia Altamirano, who is also part of IMPACT, and the strategic alliance with the biotechnological company Cells for Cells with extensive experience in the development of cellular and acellular therapies under good manufacturing and clinical grade standards, with the objective of finalizing the research with clinical trials that allow establishing safety and an initial indication of efficacy in humans.