Adult Stem Cells Successfully Treat Early MS in Human Trials
[Adult]Stem cells transplanted into early-phase multiple sclerosis patients stabilised, and in some cases reversed, the debilitating neurological disorder, according to a study published Friday...In clinical trials, a team of scientists led by Richard Burt of Northwestern University in Chicago essentially rebuilt the immune system of 21 adults -- 11 women and 10 men -- who had failed to respond to standard drug treatments. First they removed defective white blood cells that, rather than protecting the body, attacks the fatty sheath, called myelin, that protects the nervous system.
Can you imagine the banner headlines if this were an embryonic stem cell success? From the story:
Please note this is not a cure. But from my non scientific reading of various studies, it seems that these treatments usually help improve the conditions of patients rather than eradicate the diseases entirely.
The immune systems were then replenished with so-called haemopoeitic stem cells -- extracted from the patient's bone marrow -- capable of giving rise to any form of mature blood cell. The technique is not new. But this was the first time it had been applied to young and relatively healthy individuals in the early, so-called "relapsing-remitting" phase of the disease. Participants had had MS for roughly five years.
After an average follow-up period of three years, 17 of the 21 patients improved by at least one point on a standard disability scale, and none had a final score lower than before the stem cell transplant. The procedure "not only seems to prevent neurological progression, but also appears to reverse neurological disability," concluded the study, published in the British medical journal The Lancet.
But hey, it beats a kick in the teeth!
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 6:55 PM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
It beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, too. It's wonderful.
Great news. If I understand correctly it brings the disease to a standstill.
Cool news. Nature also has an article this week (Dec 11 issue) which reports that adult mouse stem cells can seed a new prostate in a mouse.
It's totally strange that the morally questionable (at best) treatment gets the attention instead of the much more acceptable one which appears to be successful.
There was also a mouse study of spinal cord injury helped by adult stem cells.
I think the news distortion has to do with the politics of the situation. I am convinced that some don't want the adult stem cells to be sufficient because it would mean that the moralizing "enemies of science" were right.
I agree that that's why some don't want the adult stem cells to be sufficient. Speaking of moralizing, that was an unforgiveable thing to do to those mice.
I've read articles that suggest adult stem cells will be more than sufficient - they will be better, because they can be harvested from the patient and contain their own DNA.
And it is shocking the things that are done to mice and frogs in research labs, not so much for the useful cures (hopefully their mice cancer research will help cure pet mouse cancer too) but for "curiousity" - like the frogs bred to be transparent. It's very unpleasant to think of them purposefully injuring a mouse's spinal cord and then trying to fix it. At the very least, couldn't they research on the already injured wild animals brought into pet clinics?
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