Stem cell therapy reverses symptoms of MS

A radical treatment that knocks out the immune system and then regenerates it could halt the progression of aggressive multiple sclerosis and even reverse its symptoms, research had shown.

Scientists in Canada hailed the results from a trial involving 24 patients with a highly active, relapsing form of the autoimmune disease as "very exciting".

However, they warned that the procedure was risky and would likely benefit only a certain proportion of patients still in early stages of the illness.

In patients with MS, the immune system attacks nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord stripping them of myelin, a fatty insulating material. In the absence of the material, nerve signals cannot be properly transmitted.

Symptoms include blurred vision or tingling sensations to full blown paralysis and as the disease progresses, it becomes more aggressive over time, with rapid deterioration of health in some cases.

In tests of the therapy, called IAHSCT (immunoablation and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation), scientists took stem cells from patients' bone marrow and froze them before injecting powerful chemotherapy drugs to destroy the immune system.

The stem cells were then transplanted back into the body to generate a new functional immune system having no "memory" of attacking the brain.

According to Mark Freedman, a neurologist at the University of Ottawa, who co-led the trial, he would not say his patients were cured. ''I hesitate to use the c-word, The Guardian reported. A cure would be stopping all disease moving forward and repairing all damage that has occurred. As far as we can ascertain no new damage seems to occur beyond the treatment and patients don't need to take any medication, so in that sense I think it has induced a long-standing remission. Some patients did recover substantial function and it allowed them to do things they couldn't do for years, but others did not.''

The long-term results of the trial in Canada, published in the Lancet medical journal, had been universally applauded by scientists and support groups and would lead to a worldwide clamour for the transplants to be more widely available, according to commentators.