London – People left wheelchair-bound by multiple sclerosis can walk, run and even dance again after being given a pioneering stem cell treatment.
Doctors have described the recoveries as ‘miraculous’, while patients say they have been given their lives back.
The treatment uses a patient’s own stem cells – the body’s master cells – to fight the disease.
If it fulfils its early promise, it could be the first therapy that does not just slow the damage done by the condition, but reverses it.
Professor Basil Sharrack, of the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, said: ‘Since we started treating patients some three years ago some of the results have been miraculous. This is not a word I would use lightly but we have seen profound neurological improvements.’
However, more research is needed to prove the patients are not just experiencing a temporary remission, which does happen in MS.
The neurological condition, which is more common in women than men, usually strikes those in their 20s and 30s and affects 2.5million people worldwide.
It can cause blindness and paralysis, but current drugs are not suitable for all and there is no cure.
The disease occurs when ‘friendly fire’ from the body’s immune system destroys myelin, the fatty protective sheath around nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord, disrupting the transmission of vital signals.
The Sheffield treatment uses the stem cells to ‘reboot’ the immune system so that it stops attacking the body and brain.
First, a sample of the patient’s blood is taken and stem cells are removed from it and stored. The patient is then given a high dose of chemotherapy to wipe out their faulty immune system. Finally, they are given their stem cells back. As master cells, they are able to form a new, healthy immune system.
The transplant has a one-off cost of around £30,000, similar to the amount spent on some patients’ drugs each year. As well as stopping the disease in its tracks the treatment, known as autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, seems to heal damage that has already been done.
A man who was blind in one eye has almost normal vision again. A woman in Canada who needed 24-hour care appears free of MS more than a decade after being given a transplant of her own stem cells.
Despite these dramatic improvements, the treatment is not suitable for all patients. A US trial on almost 150, reported last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed it to help roughly half the time.
There are also concerns about complications including potentially lethal infections.
The MS Society described the Sheffield work as ‘very encouraging’ and said it is eagerly awaiting the results of larger trials.
Daily Mail