Have managed to reduce the symptoms of multiple sclerosis

2009/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Medikuntza

The use of stem cell transplantation can reduce the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, as published in the journal Lancet Neurology. Scientists at Northwestern University have treated patients with recurrent multiple sclerosis. For three years, the evolution of patients has been investigated and the conclusion has been reached that the process is viable in patients who are in this phase of the disease.

When the disease spreads progressively and gradually, stem cell transplantation does not work. In patients with recurrent retrograde multiple sclerosis, symptoms appear and stop. Sometimes the stops last for years.

Conventional treatment involves total or partial destruction of the bone marrow by chemotherapy or radiation therapy. But this generates high mortality. The new technique is to perform a conditioning treatment without removing the bone marrow. To do this, hematopoietic stem cells are taken from the patient's blood and frozen. Subsequently, without completely destroying the bone marrow, the patient takes a series of medications to remove the immune system. Finally, it retransplants its hematopoietic stem cells. The goal is for new defensive cells not to act against the patient's body.

Three years after transplantation, 100% of patients did not get worse, 81% were better and 62% had no symptoms of disease. Researchers have stated that multiple sclerosis can be cured with stem cells. They have found that it prevents neurological progression and reverses neurological disability.