London - A new stem cell therapy is helping a small group of patients left paralysed by multiple sclerosis to walk again.
Experts say the treatment – which involves rebooting a patient’s faulty immune system after killing it off with chemotherapy – might even reverse the course of the disease.
MS is the most common disabling neurological condition, with 50 people in Britain diagnosed each week, usually in their 20s or 30s. The condition, which affects twice as many women as men, causes loss of mobility, sight problems and excruciating pain.
Until now, there have been few treatments which alter the progression of the disease. But in a medical trial which has been running in Sheffield for the last three years, 20 patients have been treated using their own stem cells, and with astounding results.
Professor Basil Sharrack, consultant neurologist at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital said: ‘To have a treatment which can potentially reverse disability is really a major achievement.’
MS is caused when a person’s immune system malfunctions, and instead of warding off diseases attacks the body’s own nerves. The disease either becomes progressively worse with age – or strikes in brutal, periodic relapses.
But the new treatment, known as an autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplant – or HSCT – aims to destroy the faulty immune system using chemotherapy. It then ‘reboots’ it using stem cells harvested earlier from the patient’s own blood.
Stem cells act as a ‘repair kit’ for the body – capable of turning into every sort of cell to repair or replace damaged tissue or blood.
Professor John Snowden, consultant haematologist at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said: ‘The immune system is being reset or rebooted back to a time point before it caused MS. It’s clear we have made a big impact on patients’ lives, which is gratifying.’
The breakthrough, revealed by BBC’s Panorama on Monday night, is part of an international trial in which Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is working with hospitals in the US, Sweden and Brazil.
The treatment involves intensive chemotherapy, so patients are warned there are side-effects such as nausea and hair-loss. The transplant involves a one-off cost of around £30,000, which is comparable to the yearly cost of some MS treatments.
But because the procedure involves the patient’s own cells and no new drugs, there is relatively little profit for pharmaceutical firms, meaning academics have had to drive its development forward without outside investment.
The trial will report back in a couple of years, and its outcome could determine whether the transplant becomes a standard NHS treatment.
CASE STUDY
Two years ago, Holly Drewry could only take her daughter Isla for a walk if someone pushed her wheelchair, while she held on to the pushchair. Today, she can play with her three-year-old like any other parent.
Drewry was just 21 when she was diagnosed with MS and her condition deteriorated after she gave birth. She said: 'Within a couple of months I got worse and worse. I couldn’t dress or wash myself.’
Drewry, now 27 and from Sheffield, had needed a wheelchair before her transplant, but three weeks after she received her stem cell treatment she walked out of hospital.
She said: 'It’s been a miracle. I got my life and my independence back.’
Two years on she has suffered no relapses and there is no evidence of active disease. Doctors hope the transplant might be a permanent fix.
Daily Mail