Kringle Pharma, Inc. announced that it has jointly filed a patent application with Keio University on the combination use of recombinant human hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) with human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neural stem/progenitor cell (hiPSC-NS/PC) as an effective treatment for spinal cord injury. The company has continued collaborative research with Professors Hideyuki Okano and Masaya Nakamura at Keio University School of Medicine since 2021, aiming to create novel therapies for spinal cord injury. As a result of this joint research, KRINGLE and Keio University already filed a patent application in March 2022, based on the improvement of functional recovery in the animal model of chronic complete spinal cord injury by transplanting hiPSC-NS/PC with the scaffold-mediated delivery of HGF.

Further in the joint research, HGF administration in the acute phase, followed by transplantation of hiPSC-NS/PC in the sub-acute phase, significantly improved motor function in the animal model of severe spinal cord injury compared to each single treatment group, leading to the second patent application jointly filed by KRINGLE and Keio University. Currently, HGF monotherapy in acute spinal cord injury is being tested in a Phase III clinical trial by KRINGLE, and hiPSC-NS/PC transplantation in the sub-acute phase is ongoing in clinical research by Keio University, respectively. Therefore, a next-generation regenerative therapy combining the HGF and iPS cell technologies is expected to be put into clinical use before long for the treatment of acute and sub-acute spinal cord injuries.

The preclinical results will be presented by Keio University School of Medicine during the 57th Annual Meeting of the Japan Medical Society of Spinal Cord Lesion.