Re: Dose of Own Stem Cells Reverses Patients’ Multiple Sclerosis
- From: Tick <oltick@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2009 10:12:03 -0800 (PST)
Cowboy, if they can get this working for progressive MS we'll be back
in business. You'll be bustin' 3 seconds and I'll top 95 points in no
time. Well there's still that age thing (for me that is). Shee-it!
On Jan 30, 1:04 am, thewesterner <mscow...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=akHXxf3bS3TY&refe....
Dose of Own Stem Cells Reverses Patients’ Multiple Sclerosis
A dose of their own stem cells “reset” the malfunctioning immune
system of patients with early-stage multiple sclerosis and, for the
first time, reversed their disability, according to researchers at
Northwestern University in Chicago.
All 21 patients in the study had the “relapsing-remitting” form of the
disease that makes their symptoms alternately flare up and recede.
Three years after being treated, on average, 17 of the patients had
improved on tests of their symptoms, 16 had experienced no relapse and
none had deteriorated, the study found.
“This is the first study to actually show reversal of disability,”
said Richard Burt, an associate professor in the division of
immunotherapy at Northwestern, and the lead author of the study
published yesterday in the British journal, the Lancet Neurology.
“Some people had complete disappearance of all symptoms.”
Researchers are using stem cells taken from people’s own bodies to try
to fight conditions such as heart disease, orthopedic ailments and to
reconstruct women’s breasts after cancer surgery. These adult stem
cells differ from those derived from embryos, which have the potential
to form any of the roughly 210 cell types in the human body. Geron
Corp. last week was given U.S. regulatory approval to conduct the
first human studies with embryonic stem cells.
In multiple sclerosis, or MS, a patient’s immune cells attack the
central nervous system, degrading their vision, coordination, balance
and sometimes their cognitive abilities.
Drug Treatment
The vast majority of patients with this disease are first diagnosed
with the relapsing-remitting form and some progress to more serious
stages. The study included only patients whose flare-ups continued
after being treated with protein-based drugs known as interferons.
Participants had their hematopoietic, or blood-forming, stem cells
extracted before chemotherapy drugs killed immune cells in their bone
marrow. The patients’ stem cells were then returned to rebuild their
marrow.
One of the patients was Edwin McClure, now a 24-year-old graduate
student in marketing at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
McClure was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis as a high school senior
in 2002, after his vision dramatically worsened.
“It was like someone had turned down the dimmer switch,” he said in a
Jan. 28 telephone interview. He also suffered from dizziness, poor
balance and fatigue so bad that he’d collapse and sleep for three
hours every day after school.
Over the next few years, McClure was treated with steroids and
interferons. While they controlled the disease for a time, his
symptoms eventually broke through, triggering fresh attacks.
McClure went to Chicago to take part in Burt’s study at the end of
2005, spent a month being treated, and hasn’t needed any drugs since.
‘A Blessing’
“It’s a blessing,” he said. “My disease has been halted.”
Even the stress of being in the competitive graduate program -- a
factor known to exacerbate symptoms of multiple sclerosis -- hasn’t
caused a single attack, he said. His balance is better and his vision
hasn’t deteriorated further.
MS affects an estimated 400,000 Americans and 2.5 million people
worldwide. Researchers believe that in the early stage of the disease,
the hyperactive immune cells attack nerve cells. This damages the
myelin, an insulating material that surrounds the axons, long fiber
tails that extend from a neuron and help transmit electrical signals.
Early Effort
“Research has shown it’s critical to stop the inflammation early and
that’s probably the best way to stop neural degeneration and
progression of the disease,” said Patricia O’Looney, vice president of
biomedical research at the National MS Society, in a Jan. 28 telephone
interview.
In previous efforts, Burt and other scientists tried giving bone
marrow stem cells to patients with more advanced disease, with no
benefit.
“I called it a failure,” he said. “When you do it in late-stage
patients, they don’t improve,” probably because the immune cells have
already done their damage.
O’Looney said the results of Burt’s study were promising and should
now be replicated in a larger trial that randomly compares the stem-
cell treatment with existing therapy. Burt is now starting such a
trial, which will recruit 55 patients in the U.S., Canada and Brazil.
If the results of today’s study are borne out in the new one, “I think
we can really change the way this disease is approached,” Burt said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rob Waters in San Francisco at
rwate...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Last Updated: January 30, 2009 00:00 EST
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