Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that mainly affects young adults. The pathology of MS involves demyelination of nervous cells along with the neuro-degeneration. The clinical manifestation of the disease includes severe brain inflammation, sensory disorders, weakness, pain, tiredness, depression, and organ paralysis. MS can be developed from viral infection, genetic defects, or environmental factors. As yet, the exact etiology of the disease is unfortunately unknown.

The activation and differentiation of CD4+ T cells into a Th1 phenotype are a crucial event in the initiation of the disease. The existing treatment strategies are mainly restricted to symptomatic treatments and are not effective against the disease’s progression, nor can they regenerate brain damage. Recently, studies have shown tremendous therapeutic potential of stem cells as a source for personalized cellular therapeutics for organ repair and regeneration.

In one of our previous blogs, we described how scientists developed an accelerated protocol to generate functional oligodendrocytes for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Recently, a study conducted at Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield and Kings College Hospital, London, has remarkably reversed the symptoms of multiple sclerosis in patients who have been in a wheelchair for almost 10 years of their lives. In this novel treatment, doctors harvested the patient’s own stem cells during treatment and subsequently stored them in liquid nitrogen until further use. Then they used a high dose of chemotherapy to destroy existing faulty immune cells before infusing the patient’s own stem cells back into their body. The idea was to reconstruct an immune system using the patient’s own stem cells. The therapy was tested in 145 patients and led to significant reductions in their levels of disability in almost 64% of people up to four years after treatment. Doctors observed that the immune system is revived again within a month and patients also started showing the symptoms of recovery at the same time. Marked improvement was seen in quality of life and other ratings of symptoms and disability.

This study has shown strong evidence of the regeneration of the entire immune system in multiple sclerosis patients. It has been established now that transplantation of a patient’s own stem cells has tremendous therapeutic potential for several diseases, including multiple sclerosis. At HemaCare, stem cells are collected after obtaining donor consent in compliance with institutional review board (IRB) oversight. Collections and processing are conducted in accordance with standard operating procedures (SOPs) to unfailingly ensure a quality product.

Reference:

[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/behindtheheadlines/news/2015-03-02-miracle-stem-cell-treatment-reboots-immune-system-in-ms/

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