Breakthrough in multiple sclerosis research

[manouli]

An experimental adult stem cell transplant is getting results for patients

An experimental adult stem cell transplant is getting results for patients

Updated: Feb 26, 2008 02:18 PM PST





By Lori Lyle
WAVE 3 Health and Medical Reporter

LOUISVILLE (WAVE) -- Adult stem cell therapy has become a standard of care when treating several types of cancer. Now a review of clinical trials involving adult stem cells during the past ten years indicates they are helping patients who have a variety of diseases and even heart trouble. One patient diagnosed with multiple sclerosis says his symptoms are gone.

Barry Goudy was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1995. He began losing feeling in his left leg and as trouble with his central nervous system progressed he started to lose his vision.

"You sit and you cry and you wonder why you and then I went back to my neurologist and said tell me how I can fight this," said Barry.

Barry enrolled in a clinical trial in 2003. After five days of chemotherapy to destroy his immune cells, doctors used his own stem cells to rebuild his immune system.

"I have no symptoms of MS. I do no treatment for MS, I do no shots," Barry says.


more:

http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=7928797

[manouli]

MS Society Comments on Stem Cells Story

Posted : Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:21:01 GMT

Author : Multiple Sclerosis Society






LONDON, April 23 /PRNewswire/ -- With regard to Professor Charles ffrench-Constant's comments on stem
cells and multiple sclerosis:


Dr Laura Bell from the MS Society said: "These are exciting times for MS
research. Ten years ago there were no drugs to treat MS, but today there are
a range of therapies available and a dozen more in late stage clinical
trials. We are putting millions into MS research and very much hope that the
new avenues we are exploring - including stem cells - will bring about major
advances in the next ten years."



more....

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/s...2C363847.shtml


http://meltwaternews.com/pagroup/pag...371208910648A0

[manouli]

Adult Stem Cells Helping MS Patients

May 9, 2008

Adult Stem Cells Helping MS Patients

by Nim Reza
While congress is focusing on embryonic stem cell research, a breakthrough in adult stem-cell research means some people with one of the most debilitating of diseases could finally get some relief.

Researchers say they were only trying to “restart” the immune systems of M-S patients with adult stem cells from bone marrow. What they saw was a remarkable remission of the disease. No one’s using the word cure, but no patient with the treatment has had a relapse in nearly seven years. Dr. David Prentice of the Family Research Council.

“I think this is just another brick on the pile of adult stem cells and their ability to effectively treat disease in human patients.”

This is just the latest study that shows how effective adult stem cell research is compared to embryonic stem cell research.

“It’s about time," said Prentice, "that people woke up to the facts, that adult stem cells are the ones that hold real promise to treat patients.”

more....

http://www.citizenlink.org/fnif/A000007392.cfm

[manouli]

New study aims to take mystery out of MS

New study aims to take mystery out of MS
Posted Fri May 16, 2008 1:19pm AEST
Updated Fri May 16, 2008 2:51pm AEST


Associate Professor, Bruce Taylor from the Menzies Research Institute is aiming to take the mystery out of multiple sclerosis. (ABC News: Fiona Breen)

Audio: Associate Professor Bruce Taylor from the Menzies Research Institute discusses a new study of multiple sclerosis with ABC Hobart reporter Fiona Breen (ABC News)
The Menzies Research Institute hopes to take the mystery out of multiple sclerosis(MS), with a study investigating factors that predict the rate of progression of the disease.

more....

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...16/2246950.htm

[manouli]

Charleston doctor participating in clinical trials for mulitple sclerosis drugs

Tuesday May 27, 2008

Charleston doctor participating in clinical trials for mulitple sclerosis drugs
Charleston physician has 800 patients who are afflicted with the disease
by Monica Orosz

Dr. Kirin Kresa-Reahl and her husband, Dr. Harry Reahl, have plenty of paperwork associated with the day-to-day operations of a busy neurology practice.

Yet Kresa-Reahl gladly takes on even more if it will help her patients and advance the ways of treating multiple sclerosis, a disease that affects 3,000 West Virginians.


MS attacks the central nervous system - brain, spinal cord and optic nerves - and can cause symptoms such as numbness, balance problems and vision loss. Depending on the type of MS, symptoms may come and go, change with each attack, or they may progress to the point that the patient is disabled. It affects women two to three times more than it does men. Most people are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50.

Currently, Kresa-Reahl's and Reahl's practice is involved in 14 clinical trials for medications to treat multiple sclerosis. Kresa-Reahl's patients involved in the studies - currently 29 - are using medications that are either newly approved or on the cusp of being approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

more.....

http://www.dailymail.com/Life/200805270181

[manouli]

Drug that may reverse Multiple Sclerosis hailed as a breakthrough

Drug that may reverse Multiple Sclerosis hailed as a breakthrough

Thursday, 23 October 2008

Multiple Sclerosis sufferers across Northern Ireland were given fresh hope last night after scientists may have found a drug with the unprecedented power to halt advancement of the condition — and reverse damage already done.


The discovery is being hailed as the biggest advance against the debilitating neurological condition for more than a decade and could prove effective against other, similar diseases. The MS Society said it was "delighted" by the results.

Scientists believe the drug, alemtuzumab, may also be effective in other conditions. Further studies are under way into its use in autoimmune conditions such as rhemumatoid arthritis, in which the immune system attacks itself, and in transplant surgery.

Alemtuzumab was developed 30 years ago by researchers at the University of Cambridge and is an established treatment for leukaemia. It was the first monoclonal antibody – a type of immune system booster – given to humans and heralded a new era of powerful medical treatments. Its creator, Cesar Milstein, was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1984.

more...

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/ne...-14011177.html

[carbar]

I saw Tony Johnstone (the golfer mentioned in the article) on the news last night and his story is certainly compelling evidence that the treatment has worked for him. Very good news for MS sufferers in the early stages.

[manouli]

British Researchers Make Major Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough
By Tom Rivers
London
23 October 2008

Rivers report - Download (MP3)
Rivers report - Listen (MP3)


British scientists have found a drug used to fight leukemia that appears to stop multiple sclerosis in its early stages and restore lost function to patients. Although still in the clinical trial phase, it is being called by some, the most promising and most significant MS treatment yet discovered. For VOA, Tom Rivers reports from London.

The three-year study conducted by Cambridge University researchers found for the first time a treatment that showed long-term multiple sclerosis disability improvement.


read...

http://voanews.com/english/2008-10-23-voa27.cfm

[Wise Young]

This is an exciting development. It prevents progression. Now, what we need are treatments that reverses neurological losses. Wise.

[jhope]

what about this? https://www.carecure.net/forum/showthread.php?t=109587

can this restore spinal cord?

[manouli]

Stem-cell therapy reduces symptoms of multiple sclerosis
3:30 PM, January 29, 2009



Infusing multiple sclerosis patients with their own immune stem cells appears to help the immune system "reset" itself and fight off the disease, according to a study that will be published online Friday in the Lancet Neurology.

The study, an early-phase research project involving only 21 patients, is similar to other experiments in which a patient's own stem cells are used to treat autoimmune diseases. The treatment, called autologous non-myeloablative haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation, has also shown promising results in people with lupus and diabetes.

In the new study, Dr. Richard Burt of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, selected people ages 20 to 53 who had early-stage MS (they had been diagnosed an average of five years) and who had not responded to at least six months of treatment with interferon beta, the standard treatment for the disease.



more...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/boos...ell-thera.html

[manouli]

MS attacks the brain, said one researcher. 'After the procedure, it doesn't do that any more.'

Bone marrow stem cells prove effective in treating MS


A Northwestern University of Chicago study using adult stem cells to treat patients suffering from early onset multiple sclerosis has lead to an improvement in the condition of 17 of the 21 patients, with 16 patients demonstrating no relapse in their condition three years after receiving the treatment.

Patients in the study were in what is commonly referred to as the first stage of the autoimmune disease, in which their symptoms periodically flare up and then subside.

According to Bloomberg, the patients' blood-forming stem cells were extracted, and then chemotherapy drugs were used to kill the patient’s immune cells within their bone marrow.

After the chemotherapy treatment, the patient’s hematopoietic cells were returned to the body. A Northwestern University report on the study said this transplantation process resets the patient’s immune system.

more...

http://www.kansasliberty.com/liberty...feb/stem-cell/

[manouli]

my friends this is great news yeah?



College Student With Multiple Sclerosis Symptom-Free After Stem-Cell Treatment
Monday, February 23, 2009


Edwin McClure, a Virginia Commonwealth University advertising graduate student, says a stem-cell study he participated in appears to have cured his multiple sclerosis symptoms.

McClure started showing symptoms of MS in 2000 when he was a senior in high school.

Although he initially thought it was just a cold, he knew the condition was more serious when his vision began blurring.

"It was like someone turning down the dimmer switch," McClure said.

When his neurologist told him he was showing the symptoms of MS, he was surprised and confused."

It threw me for a loop," McClure said. "This is a disease that typically hits 40-year-old white women and I'm like, 'I'm an 18-year-old black male.' Somebody didn't get the memo."

more...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C293...8464%2C00.html

[manouli]

Easing the pain of MS: Hilton Head Island resident Vita Johnson is looking to stem cell treatment in China for relief from multiple sclerosis ( )


Mar 24, 2009 (The Island Packet - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Sometimes, the pain is manageable. Vita Johnson can operate her mechanical wheelchair, but her back and right arm are almost always in pain, like the muscles are constantly tense. Other times, the pain is unbearable. All she can do is stay in her darkened bedroom and cry.
She used to jog, lift weights, swim and jump out of airplanes for fun. But multiple sclerosis has reduced her body to the point where she needs help just to go to the bathroom.

She wants to be better, but none of her treatments have stopped the MS, a disease that attacks the central nervous system. She sees hope, but it's halfway around the world.

Johnson is raising money to go to China to receive injections of stem cells, a treatment that she hopes will improve her condition. She'd like to do it in her own country, but it's not permitted in the United States.

Stem cell therapy has been hotly debated. Clinics in Costa Rica, China and elsewhere offer the treatments for a variety of afflictions, from cerebral palsy to spinal cord injuries. Some of these clinics' Web sites feature stories of the wheelchair-bound who take their first steps again, the blind who can make out shapes and letters.

IS THERE HOPE?

But in the United States, skepticism mixes with hope. Advocates of stem cell research say one day stem cell treatments may prove beneficial for Vita and other MS suffers. But the evidence isn't there yet. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society issued a statement last month encouraging research of stem cells in clinical tests.

more....


https://sites.stockpoint.com/dain/ne...4/083e1817.xml

[manouli]

United Spinal Association Reports Positive Results of Stem Cell Transplantation to Treat Multiple Sclerosis: Study May be Key to Unlocking a Cure

NEW YORK, May 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An article published in the Summer 2009 edition of Multiple Sclerosis Quarterly Report, a joint publication of United Spinal Association (www.UnitedSpinal.org) and the North American Research Committee on Multiple Sclerosis (NARCOMS), highlights the positive initial results of patients who have improving neurologic function after receiving a stem cell transplant, despite no longer taking any MS medications.


The results are reported in a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored study called HALT-MS to confirm whether high-dose immunosuppression followed by autologous stem cell transplantation will prevent MS attacks in patients who are not responding to available treatment options and ultimately protect against the degeneration of nerve fibers.

more...

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/p.../05/08/DC13761