'Miraculous' results from new MS stem-cell therapy
'Miraculous' results from new MS treatment
Wheelchair-bound multiple sclerosis patients able to walk
again after stem-cell therapy
By Telegraph reporter 7:50AM GMT 18 Jan 2016
A pioneering new stem cell treatment is reversing and
then halting the potentially crippling effects of multiple sclerosis.
Patients embarking on a ground-breaking trial of the new
treatment have found they can walk again and that the disease even appears to
be stopped in its tracks.
Holly Drewry, 25, from Sheffield, who was wheelchair
bound after the birth of her daughter Isla, now two.
But Miss Drewry claims the new treatment has transformed
her life.
She told the BBC’s Panorama programme: “I couldn’t walk
steadily. I couldn’t trust myself holding her (Isla) in case I fell. Being a
new mum I wanted to do it all properly but my MS was stopping me from doing it.
“It is scary because you think, when is it going to end?”
The treatment is being carried out at Royal Hallamshire
Hospital in Sheffield and Kings College Hospital, London and involves use a
high dose of chemotherapy to knock out the immune system before rebuilding it
with stem cells taken from the patient’s own blood.
Miss Drewry had the treatment in Sheffield. She said: “I
started seeing changes within days of the stem cells being put in.
“I walked out of the hospital. I walked into my house and
hugged Isla. I cried and cried. It was a bit overwhelming. It was a miracle.”
Her treatment has now been reviewed and her condition
found to have been dramatically halted. She will need to be monitored for years
but the hope is that her transplant will be a permanent fix.
She is now planning to get married.
For other patients, the results have been equally
dramatic. Steven Storey was a marathon runner and triathlete before he was
struck down with the disease and left completely paralysed: “I couldn’t flicker
a muscle,” he said.
But within nine days of the treatment he could move his
toe and after 10 months managed a mile-long swim in the Lake District. He has
also managed to ride a bike and walk again.
“It was great. I felt I was back,” he said.
Mr Storey celebrated his first transplant birthday with
his daughters. His treatment has been reviewed and, like Miss Drewry, there was
no evidence of active disease.
The treatment – which effectively ‘reboots’ the immune
systems - is the first to reverse the symptoms of MS, which has no cure, and
affects around 100,000 people in Britain.
Stem cells are so effective because they can become any
cell in the body based on their environment.
"Since we started treating patients three years ago,
some of the results we have seen have been miraculous"
Professor Basil Sharrack
Although it is unclear what causes MS, some doctors
believe that it is the immune system itself which attacks the brain and spinal
cord, leading to inflammation and pain, disability and in severe cases, death.
Professor Basil Sharrack, a consultant neurologist at
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Since we started
treating patients three years ago, some of the results we have seen have been
miraculous.
"This is not a word I would use lightly, but we have
seen profound neurological improvements."
During the treatment, the patient's stem cells are
harvested and stored. Then doctors use aggressive drugs which are usually given
to cancer patients to completely destroy the immune system.
The harvested stem cells are then infused back into the
body where they start to grow new red and white blood cells within just two
weeks.
Within a month the immune system is back up and running
fully and that is when patients begin to notice that they are recovering.
However specialists warn that patients need to be fit to
benefit from the new treatment.
The research has been published in the Journal of the
American Medical Association.
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