Hyderabad biotech startup achieves world’s first animal trial success for stem cell–exosome liver therapy
Hyderabad: In a major development for India’s biotechnology sector, Tulsi Therapeutics, a startup incubated at ASPIRE-BioNEST, University of Hyderabad, has announced the world’s first successful animal trial of a novel combination therapy for chronic liver failure using stem cells and exosomes.
The investigational product, Tulsi-28X, is a first-of-its-kind therapy derived from Wharton's Jelly mesenchymal stem cells and their native exosomes. While the concept was initiated in the United States, the platform was fully developed in India over three years at ASPIRE-BioNEST.
The preclinical trial, conducted in collaboration with international experts including Dr. Naga Chalasani (Indiana University, USA) and Dr. Ajay Duseja (PGIMER, Chandigarh), showed that all animals treated with Tulsi-28X experienced reversal of liver fibrosis, with no deaths reported. In contrast, the untreated control group saw only 14% fibrosis reversal and a 43% mortality rate. The differences were statistically significant (p