Stem cell therapies and multiple sclerosis – recent media explained.
Almost 16,000 Australians suffer from multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is an autoimmune disease whereby the immune system attacks its own myelin, causing disruption to nerve transmission affecting the central nervous system and stopping nerve impulses travelling to the brain, spinal cord and eyes. MS is unpredictable with varying symptoms and little is known about what causes the disease. Recent
news reports have focused on the case of a young Australian man with severe MS who appears to have made a substantial recovery from MS after receiving stem cell therapy in Australia.
The reported experimental treatment involves the extraction of stem cells containing bone marrow from the patient followed by a type of chemotherapy to suppress the immune system and purge all the autoreactive cells from the body. The bone marrow cells are then transplanted back into the patient in the hope that they will reset the immune system. However, this treatment which was first reported in 1997 is not currently routinely used as the risk of the patient developing a serious infection or complications immediately after the chemotherapy treatment while the immune system is suppressed is high.
However, a phase 1 clinical trial of stem cell treatment for MS using a less toxic type of chemotherapy was reported earlier this year in the medical journal The Lancet. The trial carried out in the USA treated 21 patients was small and according to The Lancet editorial 'Although this study is small and had no control procedure, the results show that the technique is feasible and worth further investigation as a potential way to reverse disability in patients with MS'. Details of this trial can be found at:
Autologous non-myeloablative haemopoietic stem cell transplantation in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: a phase I/II study. The Lancet Neurology Vol 8, Issue 3 p244 - 253, March 2009. DOI: 10.1016/S1474-4422(09)70017-1 (subscription may be required).
More information on the processes of experimental treatments and clinical trials can be found in the
ASCCs Patient Handbook, or visit
MS Australia.
Thank you to Professor Claude Bernard for his help with information on this blog.