- About 2.8 million people worldwide have multiple sclerosis (MS) as of 2020.
- Two of the four different types of MS are progressive, meaning disability worsens over time.
- An early clinical trial shows that a therapy using a certain type of stem cell may help protect the brain from further damage in progressive cases of MS.
As of 2020, about 2.8 million people globally live with multiple sclerosis (MS) — a disabling neurological condition where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the protective covering of nerve fibers.
Of the four different types of MS, two are progressive. This means that a person’s disability worsens over time.
Between 10–15% of all MS diagnoses are primary progressive MS. And previous research shows that secondary progressive MS affects between
While there are medications available for treating MS, not all work for those with progressive forms of the disease.
Now, a group of scientists from the University of Cambridge, the University of Milan Bicocca, and Hospital Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza in Italy, show that therapy using a certain type of stem cell may help protect the brain from further damage in progressive cases of MS.
This study was recently published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
For this early-stage clinical trial, researchers used neural stem cells taken from the brain tissue of a single, miscarried fetal donor.
The neural stem cells were then injected directly into the brains of 15 people with secondary MS. The study participants were recruited from two hospitals in Italy and the trial was conducted by teams in the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, and the United States. All study participants had high levels of disability at the beginning of the trial.
After following participants for 12 months,…
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