Knowledge about multiple sclerosis, as well as treatments aimed at minimizing its symptoms, have come a long way in recent years. Currently, scientists are well aware of the mechanisms leading to the disease, but there is no “golden bullet” to combat them. the quality of life patients have improved significantly with treatment that reduces the severity and frequency of relapses. However, it doesn’t exist yet treatment of multiple sclerosis which alleviates the difficulties they face in later stages of the disease.
Although not all patients go through all stages, there is usually a first, milder stage characterized by very clearly defined shoots, in which new symptoms appear or existing ones worsen. This is what is known as relapsing remitting phase. This name is due to the fact that after outbreaks that occur periodically, more or less prolonged periods appear during which the symptoms may improve or even disappear completely, leading to remission. This is the stage at which most diagnoses are made. And this is precisely the phase that any treatment for multiple sclerosis usually targets.
However, two thirds of patients during the period about 25-30 years, they reach the so-called progressive stage, which can also be primary or secondary. In this case, the symptoms are already progressive, without flare-ups, and the disability gradually worsens. Scientists have long been searching for treatments for multiple sclerosis that work at this stage, if not at this stage. reverse the progression of symptomsat least stop it. Now, thanks to a new cell therapy, a group of scientists from England and Italy They could take a big step along this path.
How does the disease occur?
multiple sclerosis This is an autoimmune disease. That is, this happens because the immune system itself attacks some part of the body, mistakenly identifying it as foreign. In this case, the part of the body that it attacks is the myelin. That is, a sheath that protects nerve fibers and facilitates the transmission of signals between them. If this sheath becomes worn, nerve electrical impulses are not transmitted properly, such as when a wire is stripped.
This can cause a very wide range of symptoms, which vary depending on the nerves affected in each outbreak.
The cells primarily responsible for this misguided attack are microglia or microgliaa type of nervous system cell that acts as a component the immune system. That is, they protect the central nervous system from external attacks, such as viruses, or internal attacks, such as when a tumor occurs. This means that multiple sclerosis is caused in part by poor functioning of microglial cells. Therefore, they are a good target for developing treatments.
Promising treatment for multiple sclerosis
Some of the authors of this new study, who belong to Cambridge universitypreviously conducted a study on mice that showed stem cells could be the multiple sclerosis treatment they were looking for.
Stem cells are cells that are still at such a premature stage of their development that they can still transform into any cell type. They can be found at fruit, since they haven’t finished development yet. Except, in the umbilical cord of newborns and in the bone marrow of adults.
However, there is also the possibility reprogram adult cells. That is, take already differentiated cells and return them to a state in which they can differentiate into anything. This makes it possible, for example, to take skin cells and, under the right conditions, transform them into brain cells.
And that’s what these scientists did. They took adult mouse skin cells and turned them back into stem cells. In particular, brain stem cells. At that moment they brought them into central nervous system of mice with multiple sclerosis. The procedure was successful because the injection reduced brain inflammation and nerve damage associated with the disease.
It seemed that stem cells could be a good treatment for multiple sclerosis. But will this be extrapolated to humans?
Successful start of clinical trials
To answer this question, the study authors conducted a phase 1 clinical trial in which 15 patients with secondary multiple sclerosisrecruited in two Italian hospitals.
Unlike mice, stem cells aborted fetustherefore there was no need to reprogram the adult cells.
All patients had severe disabilities. In fact, most of them were already using wheelchairs. However, when neural stem cells were injected into the brain, the progression of symptoms has stopped. In the subsequent 12 months, none of the patients’ condition worsened, despite the fact that it was already in a progressive phase. There were also no reported deaths associated with multiple sclerosis treatment or serious side effects. Thus, these scientists believe that the first stage was a complete success.
What is the reason for this success?
The study authors don’t fully understand why this treatment for multiple sclerosis is effective.
They believe this may be due to changes in brain cell metabolism. Metabolism includes all the processes by which cells carry out various chemical reactions, usually to produce energy or produce new substances.
Previous studies have shown that changes in cellular metabolism can alter the behavior of microglial cells. That is, redirect cells with erroneous attacks to your own original defensive work.
This study showed that stem cell injections alter fatty acid metabolism somewhat, so a relationship may exist. It has also been observed that the more stem cells are injected, the less the brain volume decreases over time. This indicates that nerve cells are prevented from degeneration. But we will still have to conduct further investigation to find out the reasons.
On the other hand, the study authors realize that 15 people is too small to determine the effectiveness of their treatment for multiple sclerosis. However, the truth is that the first stage of a clinical trial usually does not include a large number of participants and is usually used to test drug safety. In this case, it was observed that stem cell injections were safe and well tolerated, so the first step towards treating the most advanced stages of this disease began with very good results. We hope that the next stages will continue in the same spirit.
Source: Hiper Textual
