SeaStar Medical’s Selective Cytopheretic Device Now Patented for Multiple Uses

SeaStar Medical Holding Corporation has been issued a U.S. Patent that covers methods of using the Selective Cytopheretic Device (SCD) to treat subjects with inflammatory conditions and to process activated leukocytes and platelets. The SCD is a first-in-class, cell-directed extracorporeal therapy that selectively targets highly active inflammatory cells to quell the inflammatory response.
 
“This patent significantly fortifies our intellectual property portfolio and is highly supportive of our strategy to validate our technology’s application across multiple high-value clinical indications in which hyperinflammation plays a role,” SeaStar Medical CEO Eric Schlorff said. “Regardless of its source, uncontrolled hyperinflammation can lead to vital organ damage and even death. Our SCD therapy works to selectively target the most highly activated cells responsible for inflammation to bring activated cells into a reparative state. This can stop the potential damage of over-activated cells and potentially reverse the damage they cause.”
 
This newly issued patent (No. 11,866,730) covers methods for using SCD cartridges to treat inflammatory conditions by extracorporeally sequestering activated leukocytes and/or platelets and inhibiting or deactivating their inflammatory action, as well as methods for processing activated leukocytes and/or platelets. Treating inflammatory conditions requires controlling the number of leukocytes and/or platelets without removing too many cells, which can harm the healing process. The patent’s claimed methods require the SCD cartridge to have specific ratios of surface area for sequestering activated leukocytes and/or platelets to SCD inner volume.
 
Unlike pathogen removal and other blood-purification tools, the SCD selectively targets the most highly activated proinflammatory neutrophils and monocytes. The company has observed that these most highly activated immune cells are turned off in a low calcium environment. The SCD therapy mimics nature by creating a unique micro-environment, attracting these highly activated effector cells and neutralizing them in such an environment. These cells are then returned to the body through the blood, signaling the body to focus on repair.
 
SeaStar Medical is a medical technology company that is redefining the ways in which extracorporeal therapies reduce the consequences of excessive inflammation on vital organs. The Denver-based company is developing and commercializing cell-directed extracorporeal therapies targeting the effector cells that drive systemic inflammation, causing direct tissue damage and secreting a range of pro-inflammatory cytokines that initiate and propagate imbalanced immune responses.