Stem Cell MS Patients Lead Normal Life Thanks To aHSCT Procedure
June 13, 2016
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People with MS who were involved in a long-term clinical trial are out and about enjoying a full and normal life with no signs of the disease. This follows their recovery from the stem cell transplants involving aggressive chemotherapy, or aHSCT as the procedure is known.
Results of the clinical study reached major news sources, including Multiple Sclerosis News Today on Friday after first being unveiled in The Lancet.
The 24 multiple sclerosis patients recruited for the trial were severely disabled but, with the exception of one who died, are now walking, working, kayaking, and skiing.
The trial is the first in the world to show complete long-term stopping of relapses of the debilitating disease and formation of new brain lesions. It used the Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (aHSCT) method with strong chemotherapy drugs to kill off the patients’ immune systems before rebooting them with their own heathy stem cells.
Normal life includes marriage and skiing
So, let’s take a look at how things are going now, thanks to the Daily Telegraph’s science editor Sarah Knapton:
Jennifer Molson, who was diagnosed with MS in 1996, and received her stem cell transplant in 2002 said: “Before my transplant I was unable to walk or work and was living in assisted care.“Now I am able to walk independently, live in my own home and work full time. I was also able to get married, walk down the aisle with my Dad and dance with my husband.
Jennifer Molson skiing after recovering from MS. (Picture: Ottawa Hospital)
“I’ve even gone downhill skiing. Thanks to this research I have been given a second chance at life.”Dr. Mark Freedman, of the University of Ottawa and Ottawa Hospital, where the trials were carried out, said: “Jennifer, she freaked me out one day when she came to the clinic wearing high heels. This was a girl who could barely walk.”
The trial included 24 participants with aggressive, relapsing MS who were followed for up to 13 years after treatment.
This how aHSCT works: First, a person is given medication to encourage their stem cells to migrate from their bone marrow into their blood. These stem cells are then collected from the blood, purified and frozen.
Next, high doses of chemotherapy drugs are used to destroy the person’s diseased immune system. This necessitates a stay in isolation.
The stem cells are then unfrozen and transplanted back into the same person, so that they can give rise to a new immune system that has no memory of the previous pattern of attacking the central nervous system.
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