ReNeuron scientists (1) today presented recent data on ReNcell, the Company’s human neural stem cell lines for use in drug discovery. ReNeuron is promoting ReNcell to pharmaceutical companies involved in CNS drug discovery and to academic groups involved in stem cell research.

ReNcell products are Myc immortalised cell lines derived from human foetal brain. These cell lines have been adapted for use in high throughput assays and rapidly divide in defined serum-free culture media. ReNcell lines are both genetically and phenotypically stable, and differentiate readily in-vitro to yield large numbers of functional neurones.

ReNcell lines from cortex and ventral mesencephalon are available immediately and lines from other brain regions will be available later in the year. Full SOP’s for growing and differentiating ReNcell lines are supplied with the product. Tissue samples from which the cell lines are derived are obtained following full ethical committee approval and written donor consent. Donor blood is tested and shown to be negative for important infectious agents.

ReNeuron’s main focus remains the development of ground-breaking cell transplantation therapies to treat patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, stroke and other diseases of the brain. ReNeuron uses a tiny sample of human foetal brain as starting material to create brain stem cell lines, each of which has the potential to treat many hundreds of patients. The Company’s cell lines for transplantation are immortalised with a conditional c-Myc gene, which ensures that the stem cells retain genetic stability as they divide, a pre-requisite for cell transplantation.

ReNeuron has now manufactured large numbers of cell lines with this proprietary technology and has shown that these cells readily differentiate into mature brain cells in-vitro and survive well in-vivo. The Company believes that this technology gives it a strong patent position and that its progress to date now places it ahead of many of its competitors in the field of cell transplantation therapy, where in particular the requirement for genetically stable cell lines is paramount.

(1) Miljan E.A, Pollock K, Rodrigues T, Patel S and Sinden J.D. Poster 305. British Neuroscience Association Meeting, Harrogate. April 2003.
This poster can be viewed at the Company’s web site at www.reneuron.com

Notes to editors

ReNeuron Holdings PLC is a UK bio-pharmaceutical company developing proprietary treatments for neurological disorders. Its focus is developing innovative neural stem cell technology that has the potential to treat brain diseases including stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. The Company is also exploiting the use of its stem cell lines as a drug discovery platform through its ReNcell product, which is marketed to pharmaceutical companies and academia for use as a drug discovery tool and for general research.

In addition to its stem cell programmes, ReNeuron is also developing more conventional drugs targeting diseases of the nervous system. ReNeuron has in-licensed two protein-based therapeutics, ReN1820 and ReN1826, which are currently in pre-clinical development.

Further information

Dr Martin Edwards
ReNeuron Holdings PLC
44 (0)1483 302560

ReNcell product enquiries
Dr John McDonald
ReNeuron Holdings PLC
44 (0)1483 302560

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