Autologous CD34+ cell therapy improves exercise capacity, angina frequency and reduces mortality in no-option refractory angina: a patient-level pooled analysis of randomized double-blinded trials

Abstract

Treatment with auto-CD34+ cells resulted in clinically meaningful durable improvements in TET and AF at 3-, 6- and 12-months, as well as a reduction in 24-month mortality in this patient-level meta-analysis.

Time to end the war on cell therapy

“…MSC‐HF (discussed above) showed an improvement in the primary endpoint (left ventricular function) in 60 patients . These studies are definitely not ‘futile’.…”

“…In fact, several cardiovascular cell therapy trials have met their primary endpoint ( Table ). Specifically, three randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled studies have demonstrated that administration of CD34+ cells to patients with refractory angina reduces angina (primary endpoint in ACT34‐CMI) and major adverse cardiovascular events and improves exercise time and quality of life . Two Phase II, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled studies have shown beneficial effects of cell therapy in ischaemic HF.…”

Targeting Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme-2/Angiotensin-(1-7)/Mas Receptor Axis in the Vascular Progenitor Cells for Cardiovascular Diseases

“…Several clinical trials have employed CD34 + HSPC population for determining the therapeutic potential of autologous cell therapies in cardiovascular complication (Quyyumi AA. et al, 2017;Henry et al, 2018). (Please note that cord blood is an abundant source of several types of stem progenitor cells and possess efficient vascular regenerative functions.…”

The (Translational) Road Less Traveled

“…15 Most recently, a patient-level meta-analysis of the phase I, phase II, and phase III trials demonstrated a significant improvement in exercise time, a significant reduction in angina, and a significant reduction in mortality after a single administration of autologous CD34 + cells. 16 These results, encompassing a total sample size similar to what was planned for RENEW, provide strong evidence that intramyocardial CD34 + is an effective therapy for this high-risk patient population with limited options. Furthermore, multiple meta-analyses in trials of "no option" patients with or without left ventricular dysfunction have documented significant improvements in a variety of end points.…”