A new study indicates that a combination of immunosuppression treatments and hematopoietic stem cell (HSCs) transplants may be able to stop disability progressing in people with multiple sclerosis (MS).

The research team found that the treatment prevented disability from worsening in 71% of test subjects. In an even more exciting development, they found that some patients saw the symptoms of their disability improve over the course of several years. The findings suggest that immunosuppression combined with stem cell transplants might form a viable treatment for some of the symptoms of MS. The study was published in January in the online issue of Neurology®, from the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

When people are diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS, they usually experience flare-ups, which are followed by periods of remission. Most sufferers will eventually transition to secondary progressive MS, which involves a continual worsening of symptoms, including symptoms which cause disability.

The researchers used autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplants to treat the test subjects with relapse-remitting MS patients. This involves the use of healthy blood stem cells from the participant’s own body. These cells were used to replace diseased cells.

The study’s authors were primarily interested in how the treatment would work in the long term. As study author Dr. Matilde Inglese explained: “So far, conventional treatments have prevented people with MS from experiencing more attacks and worsening symptoms, but not in the long term. Previous research shows more than half of the people with MS who take medication for their disease still get worse over a 10-year period. Our results are exciting because they show hematopoietic stem cell transplants may prevent someone’s MS disabilities from getting worse over the longer term.”

The study ran from 1997 to 2019 and involved 210 test subjects with MS. Of the test subjects, 122 had relapsing-remitting MS, 86 had secondary progressive MS, and two had primary progressive MS.

Each test subject was assessed six months, five years, and 10 years after they had received the treatment. When the researchers assessed the patients at the 5-year mark, they found that 80% of test subjects had no worsening of their MS disability. After 10 years, 66% of patients had no worsening of disability.

Source: Hematopoietic stem cell transplants may provide long-term benefit for people with MS

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