ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. (“AgeX”; NYSE American: AGE), a biotechnology company focused on developing therapeutics for human aging and regeneration, announced today a research collaboration with the University of California, Irvine (UCI) to explore the therapeutic potential of exosomes and other extracellular vesicles produced by neural stem cells derived from AgeX pluripotent stem cells, with the goal of developing therapies to treat adverse neurocognitive effects of cancer chemotherapy and radiation therapy on brain function. This research project seeks to address a critical unmet medical need that impacts the quality of life for millions of cancer survivors. The agreement between AgeX and UCI has been handled by the team at UCI Beall Applied Innovation.
The research will be conducted at UCI under the direction of Munjal Acharya, Ph.D., Associate Professor at the UCI Stem Cell Research Center. Dr. Acharya has been working in the field of regenerative medicine and cancer therapy-induced brain injury for the past 10 years. Currently, Dr. Acharya’s laboratory is studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms of radiation-induced brain injury, regenerative therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, and chemobrain.
Exosomes are nano-sized extracellular vesicles, secreted by cells, which contain a cargo of lipids, proteins and/or nucleic acids, and which participate in communication between cells. Dr. Acharya will search for exosomes and other extracellular vesicles in samples of cell culture-conditioned media used at UCI to derive neural stem cells from AgeX pluripotent stem cells in a program sponsored by AgeX seeking therapies for Huntington’s disease and other neurological disorders. Using mouse models of brain cancer therapy, Dr. Acharya will determine the safety and efficacy of exosomes or other extracellular vesicles in repairing radiation- and chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairments and neuroinflammation in the brain.
“We are excited to collaborate with AgeX to test the efficacy of exosomes derived from a GMP-compliant neural stem cell line that would increase the translational feasibility of our approach to thwart this unmet medical need faced by millions of cancer survivors world-wide,” said Dr. Acharya, UCI.
The collaboration includes an opportunity for AgeX to license inventions that may arise from the research program, and to pursue clinical development and commercialization of therapies derived using those licensed inventions.
“We are delighted to support Dr. Acharya’s efforts to seek new therapies for cancer therapy-induced brain injury,” said Dr. Nafees Malik, Chief Operating Officer of AgeX. “Dr. Acharya’s work compliments efforts at UCI in the laboratory of Professor Leslie Thompson that AgeX is sponsoring to develop methods to derive neural stem cells from AgeX’s pluripotent stem cells and its PureStem® technology platform for neurological disorders. Moreover, we are excited to be expanding our participation in the field of neurology, which has huge clinical and commercial potential.”
About AgeX Therapeutics
AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American: AGE) is focused on developing and commercializing innovative therapeutics to treat human diseases to increase healthspan and combat the effects of aging. AgeX’s PureStem® and UniverCyte™ manufacturing and immunotolerance technologies are designed to work together to generate highly defined, universal, allogeneic, off-the-shelf pluripotent stem cell-derived young cells of any type for application in a variety of diseases with a high unmet medical need. AgeX has two preclinical cell therapy programs: AGEX-VASC1 (vascular progenitor cells) for tissue ischemia and AGEX-BAT1 (brown fat cells) for Type II diabetes. AgeX’s revolutionary longevity platform induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR™) aims to unlock cellular immortality and regenerative capacity to reverse age-related changes within tissues. HyStem® is AgeX’s delivery technology to stably engraft PureStem or other cell therapies in the body. AgeX is seeking opportunities to establish licensing and collaboration arrangements around its broad IP estate and proprietary technology platforms and therapy product candidates.
For more information, please visit www.agexinc.com or connect with the company on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this release are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements that are not historical fact including, but not limited to statements that contain words such as “will,” “believes,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “estimates” should also be considered forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements and as such should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect the business of AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. and its subsidiaries, particularly those mentioned in the cautionary statements found in more detail in the “Risk Factors” section of AgeX’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (copies of which may be obtained at www.sec.gov). Subsequent events and developments may cause these forward-looking statements to change. Further, in the case of the UCI exosome research program there can be no assurance that: (i) any new technology will be invented in the research program, (ii) any new inventions will be licensed on commercially favorable terms, (iii) any resulting products for therapeutic use will be shown to be safe and effective in clinical trials, and (iv) any resulting products developed for therapeutic use will be successfully commercialized even if clinical trials are successful. AgeX specifically disclaims any obligation or intention to update or revise these forward-looking statements as a result of changed events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release, except as required by applicable law.
