1.     Stem Cell Treatment Reversed Frailty After Just One Dose

Science Focus reported this week how just one single dose of stem cells can reverse frailty by significantly improving the physical endurance of those over 70 years of age.

This landmark trial consisted of 148 adults aged between 70 and 85, all of whom had been formally diagnosed with frailty. Frailty is a common, age-related geriatric condition that carries an increased risk for poor health outcomes including falls, incident disability, hospitalization, and mortality. It is defined by the presence of three or more of these five criteria:

• unintentional weight loss,
• exhaustion,
• low physical activity,
• weak grip strength,
• slow gait speed that refers to a reduced walking speed, often caused by aging, muscle weakness (especially in calves), or underlying conditions like Parkinson’s, arthritis, or neurological disorders.

"The results of this trial were stunning" Dr Joshua Hare, Chief Science Officer of Longeveron, the biotechnology company who conducted the trial, located in Miami, Florida told BBC Science Focus. The trial was supported by a grant from the NIH’s National Institute on Aging.

“There was this beautiful separation based on time and based on dose. The more we gave, the more increase there was in the six-minute walk test.”

After nine months, those who received the highest dose walked an average of 60 meters (196.85 feet) further in a standard six-minute walk test than participants who had received a placebo. That’s an improvement of around 20 per cent.

The trial used donated bone marrow stem cells and administered them intravenously.

Mesenchymal stem cells, which are found naturally in bone marrow and other tissues, have attracted scientific interest for their ability to modulate the immune system. Mesenchymal stem cells carry few of the surface proteins that would ordinarily trigger an immune rejection, meaning recipients do not need to take immunosuppressive medications.

"If you look at 80-year-olds, some of them will be in a nursing home requiring continuous 24-hour care, and some are still out there playing tennis and golf and living a full life,” Hare said. “What's the difference? It turns out there's something biological happening."

That biology, Hare argues, centers on inflammation – or "inflammaging”, as he calls it, given its age-related component. As people get older, the immune system becomes dysregulated, producing elevated levels of inflammatory signaling molecules. This persistent inflammation damages blood vessels, depletes stem cell reserves, and accelerates the loss of muscle mass, a process known as sarcopenia. The result is frailty: a body increasingly unable to repair itself or respond effectively to physical or medical stress.

"What we typically do with people like this is not much," Hare said. "So we said, ‘Look, we’ve got to see if we can tackle this at a biological level.’ We know what the problem is.”

“This is some of the best evidence yet that we can use a medical treatment to reverse frailty,” Dr Andrew Steele, director of The Longevity Initiative, told BBC Science Focus. “We’ve known for a long time that exercise can help, but that’s often challenging, especially in the very frail, so it’s incredible to be able to not just slow the decline but show actual improvements with an infusion of stem cells.” Steele was not involved in the research.

The path to widespread clinical use faces a significant regulatory obstacle as neither the US Food and Drug Administration nor its European counterparts currently recognize frailty as a disease, which complicates the approval process considerably.

"We think it'll be approved for Alzheimer's disease before it's approved for ageing frailty, because that's a clearly defined disease with an unmet need."

For now, the trial represents something promising: robust, placebo-controlled evidence that frailty is not simply an inevitable feature of getting old, but a biological process that can, at least in part, be reversed.

2.     Stem Cell Treatments For Parkinson's And Heart Failure Approved in World First

This week a Japanese company has been approved for ground-breaking stem-cell treatments for Parkinson's and severe heart failure, with the therapies expected to reach patients within months.

Pharmaceutical company Sumitomo Pharma said it received the green light for the manufacture and sale of Amchepry, its Parkinson's disease treatment that transplants stem cells into a patient's brain.

Japan's health ministry also gave the go-ahead to ReHeart, heart muscle sheets developed by medical startup Cuorips that can help form new blood vessels and restore heart function, media reports said.

The treatments could be on the market and rolled out to patients as early as this summer, reports said, citing the Health Ministry, becoming the world's first commercially available medical products using (iPS) cells.

Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka won the Nobel Prize in 2012 for his research into iPS cells, which have the potential to develop into any cell in the body.  Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are adult somatic cells (like skin or blood) genetically reprogrammed to an embryonic-like state, allowing them to differentiate into any cell type.  Since iPSCs can be derived directly from adult tissues, they not only bypass the need for embryos, but can be made in a patient-matched manner, which means that each individual can have their own pluripotent stem cell line. These unlimited supplies of autologous cells also come without the risk of immune rejection.

"I hope this will bring relief to patients not only in Japan but around the world," Health Minister Kenichiro Ueno told a press conference.

"We will promptly carry out all necessary procedures to ensure it reaches all patients without fail."

In a statement, Sumitomo Pharma said it had obtained "conditional and time-limited approval" for the manufacture and marketing of Amchepry under a system that is reportedly designed to get these products to patients as quickly as possible.

3.     Stem Cell Worx Helps Patients Recover at Liv Hospital in Turkey  

Stem Cell Worx continues to expand globally.

This week, we extend our sincere thanks to Assistant Professor MD Nazlı Caf and the exceptional team of healthcare professionals and medical staff at Liv Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey for their dedication and collaboration.

Additional Stem Cell Worx shipments are on their way to Liv Hospital to enhance patient outcomes and accelerate healing and recovery times.