Multiple sclerosis affects around 100,000 people in the UK each year. Today, a new NHS study appears to have found a way to halt the condition in its tracks.
Currently suffers are treated with medication to improve physical problems and ease discomfort, but it does not prevent the progression of the disease, which see’s patients lose the ability to walk, ultimately ending up confined to a wheelchair.
In this new study at London’s King’s College Hospital and Imperial College Healthcare, 60 patients have been treated using a stem cell therapy with remarkable results.
The treatment consists of giving patients a haematopoetic stem cell transplant following the ablation of the immune system. This is similar to the way that some cancer recovery therapies work.
Multiple sclerosis occurs when the healthy nerve tissue is attacked by the body’s immune system. By using a stem cells to replace the faulty immune system, doctors are able to halt MS. It’s like hitting reset on the patients body.
“If it wasn’t for the stem cell therapy, I may well have been in a wheelchair by now”
More information on the trial can be found on the MS Society’s website www.mssociety.org.uk
Pilot, Sarah Brown, was diagnosed with MS in 2009. She experienced such pain in her legs and hips that walking more that a few yards had become impossible and she was no longer able to work.
After undergoing the treatment, her condition has now improved enough that she can now work again.
