by Justin Jackson – Phys.org
Researchers at Sana Biotechnology, Inc., in California, have made a significant breakthrough in realizing the promise of stem cell therapy: stem cells that do not trigger an immune response from an immunologically incompatible donor.
In the paper “Hypoimmune induced pluripotent stem cells survive long term in fully immunocompetent, allogeneic rhesus macaques,” published in Nature Biotechnology, the researchers detail how they cloaked a line of hypoimmune pluripotent (HIP) stem cells to evade the normal rejection and destruction obstacles to therapeutic use.
In an experimental setting, hypoimmune pluripotent cells did not trigger an immune cell response. They were also impervious to cytotoxicity incited by wild-type stem cells transplanted along with them, successfully evading direct detection and effects from the enrichment of untargeted threats.