An exciting new clinical trial is testing the use of stem cells to grow a new immune system for people with Crohn’s Disease. This ground-breaking trial is being led by the Queen Mary University, London with funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Crohn’s disease is a painful inflammatory condition that affects over 100,000 people in the United Kingdom. It damages the digestive system, causing stomach pain, diarrhoea, constipation, weight loss, nausea, and fatigue. While the precise cause of Crohn’s disease is still being researched, scientists have discovered that it is related to the immune system mistakenly attacking cells within a person’s body.
This upcoming clinical trial, named ASTIClite, will use stem cells to grow a new immune system that does not attack the body. The trial will recruit subjects from many areas in the UK including London, Liverpool, Nottingham, Sheffield, Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Oxford. It will be managed by researchers through the Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Sheffield.
Currently, there are very few effective treatments for Crohn’s disease. Patients often have to use special diets, take medication and sometimes have invasive surgery to remove affected areas of the digestive system.
The research team decided to use stem cells to grow a new immune system after seeing how other scientists had successfully used the technique. One team recently used stem cells in this way to treat patients with multiple sclerosis — another common autoimmune condition.
The lead investigator of the Crohn’s disease study, Professor James Lindsay, highlighted how important this research is, saying: “Despite the introduction of new drugs, there are still many patients who don’t respond, or gradually lose response, to all available treatments. Although surgery with the formation of a stoma may be an option that allows patients to return to normal daily activities, it is not suitable in some and others may not want to consider this approach.”
Trial participants will receive a hormone and chemotherapy treatment to mobilise their stem cells so researchers can extract a high quality sample. They will then receive a very high dose of chemotherapy to destroy their immune system. The stem cells that were harvested will then be reintroduced, rebuilding the body’s immune system and hopefully preventing the progression of Crohn’s disease.
Source: Stem cells to grow new immune system in Crohn’s disease patients
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