Extreme new treatment could be MS cure

The treatment is so extreme, it could kill you, but scientists are working to refine it.

In a 24-person clinical trial based in Canada, one person who was previously confined to a wheelchair was able to live a normal life again after receiving the treatment.

But there’s a catch – the treatment is so severe, it caused one fatality, so the team behind it is now working on refine the drugs and procedures involved to make them safe for all MS sufferers.

The new treatment was actually discovered by accident by a team at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Canada, through their work with patients diagnosed with both leukemia and multiple sclerosis.

One way of tackling the cancer is by extracting bone marrow cells, killing off the remaining immune cells, then injecting the bone marrow (once purged of cancer) back into the body to repopulate the immune system.

It turns out this immune system ‘reboot’ is also very effective at fighting MS. The disease causes the immune system to attack the protective coating that shields nerve cells in the brain, spinal cord, and nervous system. And after noticing the positive results on the condition in leukaemia patients, the researchers decided to trial the new technique just on MS patients, to try to flush out the immune system and effectively start again.

The treatment is designed to stop the progress of MS, but in many cases, it’s actually reversing the progress of the disease, suggesting that the nervous system can sometimes repair itself after MS takes hold, reports Clare Wilson for New Scientist.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.