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January 30, 2009
Study: 'Stem cells 'reset' immune system in MS patients'
Topics:Scientists at Northwestern University offer new hope for treating multiple sclerosis:
Stem cells transplanted into early-phase multiple sclerosis patients stabilised, and in some cases reversed, the debilitating neurological disorder, according to a study published Friday.Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that impairs movement and coordination, while causing muscle weakness, cognitive impairment, slurred speech and vision problems.
Certain drugs can retard or roll back symptoms during in the initial phase of the disease's spread.
But in the decade or more after onset, MS is characterised by gradual but irreversible neurological impairment. There is no known cure.
In clinical trials, a team of scientists led by Richard Burt of Northwestern University in Chicago essentially rebuilt the immune system of 21 adults -- 11 women and 10 men -- who had failed to respond to standard drug treatments.
First they removed 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 -- extracted from the patient's bone marrow -- capable of giving rise to any form of mature blood cell.
The technique is not new. But this was the first time it had been applied to young and relatively health individuals in the early, so-called "relapsing-remitting" phase of the disease. Participants had had MS for roughly five years.
Posted by Hyscience at January 30, 2009 7:45 AM
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