Dr Douglas Losordo Discusses the Evolution and Importance of CD34+ Treatment in Patients With CMD

We've had the opportunity to evaluate the CD34+ cell in the past 20 years, and finally we have a tool that represents a potential breakthrough for patients with CMD, said Douglas Losordo, MD, FACC, FAHA, chief medical officer at Caladrius Biosciences.

Transcript

As 1 of the scientists who found the CD34 cells 20 years ago, how has research and treatment evolved since its discovery?

In the past 20 years, we've had the opportunity to evaluate the ability of the CD34 cell to institute repair in patients who have suffered some sort of ischemic insult, whether it's a heart attack, heart failure, limb ischemia, or in the most recent case, coronary microvascular dysfunction, that's causing chest pain. The fascinating thing about this cell is that it has an unblemished track record, in terms of showing evidence for clinical benefit in every setting in which it's been tested. So, it's been quite interesting and quite encouraging, and we're now really approaching the point where these cells will be made available as part of the toolkit that doctors will have to treat patients with cardiovascular disease.

Can you describe the importance of treating CD34 cells in patients with CMD to lessen the risk of related adverse clinical outcomes?

Coronary microvascular dysfunction, or CMD, has only recently started to become recognized as a critical component, and perhaps the most important component that confers risk to patients with heart disease. We know that measurements of coronary microvascular dysfunction correlate with bad outcomes in patients. The worst your CMD, the higher the risk of cardiovascular events. What we do not yet know is whether improving coronary microvascular function results in a decrease in risk—kind of like blood pressure. Before we had blood pressure medicines, we knew that having high blood pressure was bad. We just didn't know if lowering blood pressure would reduce the risk of events–now we know that. Finally, we have a tool, as evidenced by this recent study, that appears to improve coronary microvascular function. So, now we'll be able to see what happens if we improve function–does that result in a decrease in bad events. So, we'll be able to answer that question.