Dr. Lorena Braid is the founding director and chief scientist at Aurora BioSolutions Inc., which has discovered that human umbilical cord cells are a sustainable source of human butyrylcholinesterase (HuBChE) to neutralize nerve toxins.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
A local company has made a significant breakthrough in a treatment for those affected by nerve toxins.
Aurora BioSolutions Inc. and Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics Inc. have discovered that human umbilical cord cells are a sustainable source of human butyrylcholinesterase (HuBChE), a bioscavenger that neutralizes organophosphate nerve toxins.
“This discovery has life-saving implications,” said Dr. Lorena Braid, founder and chief scientist at Aurora BioSolutions.
One of the more recent examples of a nerve agent is Novichok, which poisoned Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, U.K., in March 2018.
Across the world there are three million cases of organophosphate poisoning from agricultural pesticides every year. The toxins are inhaled or contact the skin. About 200,000 of those people die.
Nerve agents are also used in chemical warfare and as an act of terrorism. The Tokyo subway sarin attack in March 1995 resulted in the deaths of many and severely affected others.
The current treatment costs US$20,000 per dose and multiple doses are required per day.
“The extreme cost is because there is little of it,” said Braid. “You can only get it from expired human blood products.”
Braid says they have a way to engineer the cells and add a gene that makes them produce more HuBChE.
“We showed a couple years ago … we could put the cells in a thigh muscle and they would live there several months and continue to reproduce that antibody,” said Braid.
This could be done for someone who was exposed to the nerve agent.
“They become a living factory … inside the person,” said Braid.
This could have implications for veterans of the Persian Gulf War who have chronic multi-symptom illnesses that could be linked to their exposure to chemical nerve agents.
Even though it is a long time since they were exposed to the nerve agents, this treatment could apply. It would seek out the nerve agents still hiding in the body, Braid explained.
“A lot of times those (lingering) effects are because of the nerve agent that is persisting in the body at lower levels that is disrupting the nerve-to-muscle signalling causing these physiological effects,” said Braid.
Another application would be for cocaine overdosing, said Braid. A variant could be made specifically for cocaine toxicity.
The supply of human umbilical cords is through an agent in Toronto who receives them by signed consent from donors.
“They extract the cords from the Wharton’s jelly and purify those. It takes about a week,” said Braid. “They provide us with those purified cells.”
Braid says they are able to produce tens of billions of cells from a single cord. The neonatal cells grow actively and the cells are not destroyed when the substance required is extracted.
Braid says the goal is to have the product available within two years.
A team of scientists and three technical support staff have been working on this project since 2014 with the work done predominantly at the Suffield Research Centre, Casualty Management Section at Defence R&D Canada Research.
“The Department of National Defence has entirely funded this,” said Braid. “They will continue to fund the pre-clinical phase, but the Canadian government typically doesn’t fund products through commercialization and clinical trials.”
The News requested comment from the Department of National Defence, but this could not be accommodated.
