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| Stem cell hope for chemotherapy patients |
Apollo's human proteins | In a world first, Apollo Life Sciences has revealed that two of its human proteins are up to 53% faster in generating vital white blood cells used in the treatment of chemotherapy patients.
This means cancer patients who normally have to wait for up to three weeks for white blood cell levels to regenerate before embarking on subsequent courses of chemotherapy can access potentially life saving treatments earlier.
This is good news for cancer sufferers like Doug McAuliffe, a grandfather from Kyabram in Victoria. Waiting for his white blood cell count to recover before his next dose of chemotherapy can be life threatening. “I often feel well enough to go back for more chemo, but the doctors won’t let me because my white cell count is too low,” he said.
However, his scientist son-in-law is working hard to help him out.
Apollo’s Science Director, Dr Greg Russell-Jones knows the trauma cancer patients have to go through. “Because chemotherapy lowers white blood cell counts, people like my father-in-law are susceptible to serious infections. During therapy, delaying the next round of the treatment can put them further at risk. The quicker that proteins can help white blood cells grow back, the quicker patients improve.
Proteins are the basic building blocks of life, and act as catalysts for stem cells to produce white blood cells.
Apollo’s proteins are wholly derived from human cells, explaining why they act faster than rival products, which often come from yeast, bacteria, mice and rats. “Wholly human proteins do not cause cross-species contamination when used to produce stem cells,” said Dr Russell-Jones.
“These proteins have unique potential in many areas of medicine because there is a growing preference for eliminating non-human material. At the moment we are selling these unique proteins to researchers, who benefit enormously from having a consistent supply fully human proteins to work with.”
Apollo is the only company that produces a large range of wholly human proteins (hcxTM). The market for these types of proteins to treat diseases was estimated at US$4.6 billion in 2005.
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| www.apollolifescience.com |
