Author: Kate Sheridan / Source: Good News Network
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People with multiple sclerosis may be able to “reset” their immune system and potentially reverse their symptoms with an infusion of blood-based stem cells.
The finding is based on a randomized clinical trial with 110 patients who’d been diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. According to the data, stem cell transplant may be an effective treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS).
The study built on work by Dr. Richard Burt, a stem cell specialist at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, from 2015, the investigation focused on immune cells as a treatment for the illness. The new, highly anticipated data (which have not yet been published or reviewed by experts in the field) were presented on Sunday at the European Society for Bone and Marrow Transplantation in Portugal.
Stopping an Immune System Attack
The object of the intervention was to stop “the immune attack on the brain,” said Burt, who led the new study, too. Stem cells from a person’s own blood were collected 10 days after they started a drug regimen and then reinjected.
The study compared the stem cell transplant with the best available drug therapy for each patient, as determined by a neurologist. The design kept the neurologists evaluating the data in the dark about which patients received a transplant or an approved standard drug regimen.
The main goal of the trial was to see whether the transplant worsened neurological symptoms. According to the abstract of Burt’s presentation, about 60 percent of the patients who received drug therapy experienced a decline as measured by neurologists on standardized scales; by comparison, only six percent of patients who received the transplant progressed similarly.
Although further details were not provided in the presentation, Burt said…
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