Early Stage Multiple Sclerosis Reversed By Stem Cell Transplant

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common neurological disorder diagnosed in young adults, affecting 2.5 million people worldwide, including 400,000 Americans. MS is a disease of the central nervous system that affects the brain and spinal cord. The causes of the MS are not yet fully understood and there is currently no cure for the disease.

Some of the early symptoms of MS are weakness, tingling, numbness, and blurred vision. Other warning signs may include muscle stiffness, thinking problems, and urinary problems. The most common form of the disease is relapsing-remitting MS and is characterized by sudden acute attacks causing an intensification of symptoms that is followed by a full, partial or non-recovery of function.

According to a group of U.S. researchers, using bone marrow stem cell transplants to reset the immune system, can reverse symptoms of early-stage relapsing-remitting MS. A new study, conducted by Dr. Richard Burt of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and colleagues, yielded successful results in 81 percent of the patients treated.

The technique is known as autologous non-myeloablative haemopoietic stem cell transplantation and suppresses the immune system while replenishing it with new cells that develop from haemopoietic stem cells. The researchers said that this effectively resets a patient’s immune system.

Three years after being treated, 17 of the 21 patients who received the implant treatment improved on by at least one measure on a disability scale. Of these patients, 16 experienced no relapse and none had a final score on the scale that was lower than their score before transplantation. The study appears in the journal Lancet Neurology.

Study participants continued to show improvement for up to 24 months after receiving the transplants, and then stabilized. Improvements were seen in areas such as walking, vision, incontinence and limb strength.

Previous research has shown that stem cell treatment could stabilize MS or slow the rate of neurological decline but this new study is the first to show success in reversing neurological dysfunction. Burt deemed the treatment “a feasible procedure that not only seems to prevent neurological progression, but also appears to reverse neurological disability.”

Dr Doug Brown of the MS Society remarked, “These are very encouraging results and it is exciting to see that in this trial not only is progression of disability halted, but damage appears to be reversed. Stem cells are showing more and more potential in the treatment of MS and the challenge we now face is proving their effectiveness in trials involving large numbers of people.”

According to Burt, MS usually occurs in adults who have normally functioning immune systems prior to developing the disease, yet something happens to make the immune system begin to attack itself. His method targets turning the clock back to a time prior to abnormal function occurring within the immune system.

Burt emphasized the need for further testing in a more thorough randomized clinical trial that includes patients who receive the transplant treatment as well as participants who receive normal treatment. A trial is now underway that will include 55 patients from the U.S., Brazil and Canada.