Scientists use stem cells to cure MS in mice

Italian scientists say they have cured mice suffering from a form of multiple sclerosis with a novel stem cell therapy that could offer new hope for patients with the auto-immune disease.

One month after the treatment, 30 per cent of the mice treated with the technique, developed by researchers at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, recovered completely from the paralysis and 70 per cent showed an improvement, the researchers said today.

"Our discovery opens new and exciting perspectives for MS patients and might represent a crucial step for the development of neuroprotective treatments to be used in later phases of the disease," said Gianvito Martino, head of the research team.

Stem cells are master cells that can develop into specialised tissues in the body. They hold the promise of treating a range of diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and multiple sclerosis.

However, their use is controversial because the most promising stem cells are derived from human embryos.

In the study, reported in the science journal Nature, Martino and his team used adult brain stem cells that they injected into the blood or spinal fluid of mice suffering from a type of multiple sclerosis (MS).

The illness, which affects a million people worldwide, occurs when immune system cells attack and destroy the myelin sheath that protects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. There is no cure.

Twice as many women as men suffer from MS, which can be difficult to diagnose because symptoms such as tingling, fatigue, loss of balance and slurred speech are intermittent.

The study found that stem cells injected into the mice gravitated to damaged brain and nerve tissue and helped to repair it.

"They were prone to enter where the damage occurred. These cells naturally repair damage," Martino said in an interview.

"We just reproduced what occurs naturally in the body."

Martino and his team are now planning to inject human foetal neural cells into monkeys with MS to test their safety and efficacy, but he stressed that it would be five years or more before they could draw any conclusions.

"The potential of strategies such as this to treat neurological damage on a wide front is impressive," Lawrence Steinman of Stanford University in California said in a commentary on the research.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Health

MS Society of Auckland