Clinical trials (underway) using adult stem cells to treat MS (video)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Each year in the United States, about 10,000 people are diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. A long-term treatment that not only relieves symptoms but also repairs the damage caused by the disease has eluded researchers.

Now, the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University are collaborating on a one-of-a-kind clinical trial in the United States, designed to treat, or even reverse, the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis by using a patient’s own adult stem cells.

Mesenchymal stem cells, or MSCs, are found in the bone marrow. More than 150 other clinical trials in the United States and around the world are currently testing MSCs’ ability to encourage tissue repair as a way to treat a variety of other conditions such as osteoarthritis, diabetes, emphysema and stroke. Stem cell therapy is already used to treat leukemia, lymphoma and certain blood disorders.

In the Phase One trial here, a patient’s MSCs are harvested at UH, carefully cultivated in a special laboratory at CWRU and then injected intravenously back into the patient at the Clinic.

Since June, two patients have undergone the entire process. A third is scheduled to receive an infusion of MSCs on Monday. A total of 24 patients with relapsing or progressively worse MS who have moderate to severe disability will take part in the study over the next two to three years.

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