New Treatment Reverses Symptoms Of MS Patients
Posted on: Friday, 30 January 2009, 10:20 CST
A surprising new study released on Thursday details how stem cell transplants have reversed multiple sclerosis (MS) in early stage patients.
Scientists at Northwestern University in Chicago were able to rebuild the immune system of 21 adults -- 11 women and 10 men -- who had failed to respond to standard drug treatments.
The study used chemotherapy to first remove defective white blood cells that, rather than protecting the body, attacks the fatty sheath, called myelin, that protects the nervous system.
The immune systems were then replenished with so-called haemopoeitic stem cells that are extracted from the patient's bone marrow.
"We just start over with new cells from the stem cells," said Dr. Richard Burt of Northwestern University in Chicago, whose study appears in the journal Lancet Neurology.
"We focus on destroying only the immune component of the bone marrow and then regenerate the immune component, which makes the procedure much safer and less toxic than traditional chemotherapy for cancer," Burt said.
After the transplantation, the patient's new lymphocytes or immune cells are self-tolerant and do not attack the immune system.
The Lancet Neurology reported some 80 percent of those patients improved by at least one point on a scale of neurological disability.
Only 5 patients in the study relapsed, but went into remission after receiving other therapy.
Randomized controlled trials are now being implemented in a larger number of patients to compare the treatment with standard therapy.
Multiple sclerosis is caused by a defect in the body's immune system, which turns on itself, causing damage to the nerves, which can lead to numbness or weakness in the limbs, loss of vision and an unsteady gait.
It affects 2.5 million people globally and can cause permanent disability in others.
This new treatment approach, called autologous non-myeloablative hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation, is a bit gentler than the therapy used in cancer patients because rather than destroying the entire bone marrow, it attacks just the immune system component of the marrow, making it less toxic, Burt added.
"In MS the immune system is attacking your brain," Burt said. "After the procedure, it doesn't do that anymore."
Burt had transplanted immune stem cells into late-stage MS patients in previous studies. "It didn't help in the late stages, but when we treat them in the early stage, they get better and continue to get better," he said.
Dr. Doug Brown, research manager at the MS Society, said the results were very encouraging.
"It's exciting to see that in this trial not only is progression of disability halted, but damage appears to be reversed.
"Stem cells are showing more and more potential in the treatment of MS and the challenge we now face is proving their effectiveness in trials involving large numbers of people."
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Image Caption: Human embryonic stem cell colony. Courtesy Wikipedia
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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