Scientists have developed a stem cell therapy that “reboots” the immune systems of patients with Multiple Sclerosis and helps them to walk again. The clinical trial involved 20 patients at the Sheffield’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital, and was also being run in the United States, Brazil and Sweden.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a devastating disease that affects the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Once the insulating covers of the nerve cells (Myelin) have been damaged, signals cannot be sent correctly within the brain and spinal cord. The end result is a range pf physical and mental symptoms including paralysis, numbness, thinking problems, blurred vision, loss of balance and weakness in the extremities.

Scientists aren’t completely sure of the cause of MS, but they suspect it is an immune system disorder or caused by a failure of myelin-producing cells. MS affects approximately 2.5 million people around the world.

This new treatment involves destroying the faulty immune system of MS patients with chemotherapy, then giving them an autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). This form of stem cell therapy uses a patient’s own bone marrow stem cells. The stem cells rebuild the patient’s immune system back to a point before they had MS.

Professor Basil Sharrack from the Royal Hallamshire Hospital says of the breakthrough: “To have a treatment which can potentially reverse disability is really a major achievement.”

More details of this breakthrough research will be aired on the BBC Panorama program in the next few days. The television program shows patients walking and standing, only months after being confined to a wheelchair.

Dr Emma Gray, head of clinical trials at UK’s MS Society suggests that some caution may be required, saying “Ongoing research suggests stem cell therapy such as HSCT could offer hope, and it’s clear that, in the cases highlighted by Panorama, they’ve had a life-changing impact. However, trials have found that, while HSCT may be able to stabilise or improve disability in some people with MS, it may not be effective for all types of the condition.”

Source: Stem Cell Therapy Helped Paralysed MS Patients to Walk Again

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