Multiple Sclerosis Reversed in Patients Taking Own Stem Cells

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Patients in the early stages of multiple
sclerosis had their disability reversed in a study that used their stem
cells to *reset* their malfunctioning immune system.

All 21 patients in the study at Northwestern University in Chicago had
the *relapsing-remitting* form of the disease that makes their
symptoms alternately flare up and recede. Three years after being
treated, on average, 17 of the patients had improved on tests of their
symptoms, 16 had experienced no relapse and none had deteriorated, the
study found.

*This is the first study to actually show reversal of disability,*
said Richard Burt, an associate professor in the division of
immunotherapy at Northwestern, and the lead author of the study
published today in the British journal, the Lancet. *Some people had
complete disappearance of all symptoms.*

In multiple sclerosis, or MS, a patient*s immune cells attack the
central nervous system, degrading their vision, coordination, balance
and sometimes their cognitive abilities.

The vast majority of patients with this disease are first diagnosed
with the relapsing-remitting form and some progress to more serious
stages. The study included only patients whose flare-ups continued after
being treated with protein-based drugs known as interferons.

Participants had their hematopoietic, or blood-forming, stem cells
extracted before chemotherapy drugs killed immune cells in their bone
marrow. The patients* stem cells were then returned to rebuild their
marrow.

Vision Dimmed

One of the patients was Edwin McClure, now a 24-year-old graduate
student in marketing at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
McClure was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis as a high school senior in
2002, after his vision dramatically worsened.

*It was like someone had turned down the dimmer switch,* he said in
a telephone interview yesterday. He also suffered from dizziness, poor
balance and fatigue so bad that he*d collapse and sleep for three
hours every day after school.

Over the next few years, McClure was treated with steroids and
interferons. While they controlled the disease for a time, his symptoms
eventually broke through, triggering fresh attacks.

McClure went to Chicago to take part in Burt*s study at the end of
2005, spent a month being treated, and hasn*t needed any drugs since.

*A Blessing*

*It*s a blessing,* he said. *My disease has been halted.*

Even the stress of being in the competitive graduate program -- a
factor known to exacerbate symptoms of multiple sclerosis -- hasn*t
caused a single attack, he said. His balance is better and his vision
hasn*t deteriorated further.

Researchers believe that in the early stage of the disease, the
hyperactive immune cells attack nerve cells. This damages the myelin, an
insulating material that surrounds the axons, long fiber tails that
extend from a neuron and help transmit electrical signals.

*Research has shown it*s critical to stop the inflammation early
and that*s probably the best way to stop neural degeneration and
progression of the disease,* said Patricia O*Looney, vice president
of biomedical research at the National MS Society, in a telephone
interview yesterday.

In previous efforts, Burt and other scientists tried giving bone marrow
stem cells to patients with more advanced disease, with no benefit.

Late-Stage Failure

*I called it a failure,* he said. *When you do it in late-stage
patients, they don*t improve,* probably because the immune cells
have already done their damage.

O*Looney said the results of Burt*s study were promising and should
now be replicated in a larger trial that randomly compares the stem-cell
treatment with existing therapy. Burt is now starting such a trial,
which will recruit 55 patients in the U.S., Canada and Brazil.

If the results of today*s study are borne out in the new one, *I
think we can really change the way this disease is approached,* Burt
said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rob Waters in San Francisco at
rwaters5@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: January 29, 2009 18:30 EST
-----------------------------

Stem cell transplant reverses early-stage multiple sclerosis
Public release date: 29-Jan-2009
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-01/nu-sct012909.php

CHICAGO --- Researchers from Northwestern University's Feinberg School
of Medicine appear to have reversed the neurological dysfunction of
early-stage multiple sclerosis patients by transplanting their own
immune stem cells into their bodies and thereby "resetting" their immune
systems.

"This is the first time we have turned the tide on this disease," said
principal investigator Richard Burt, M.D. chief of immunotherapy for
autoimmune diseases at the Feinberg School. The clinical trial was
performed at Northwestern Memorial Hospital where Burt holds the same
title.

The patients in the small phase I/II trial continued to improve for up
to 24 months after the transplantation procedure and then stabilized.
They experienced improvements in areas in which they had been affected
by multiple sclerosis including walking, ataxia, limb strength, vision
and incontinence. The study will be published online January 30 and in
the March issue of The Lancet Neurology.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease in which the immune
system attacks the central nervous system. In its early stages, the
disease is characterized by intermittent neurological symptoms, called
relapsing-remitting MS. During this time, the person will either fully
or partially recover from the symptoms experienced during the attacks.
Common symptoms are visual problems, fatigue, sensory changes, weakness
or paralysis of limbs, tremors, lack of coordination, poor balance,
bladder or bowel changes and psychological changes.

Within 10 to 15 years after onset of the disease, most patients with
this relapsing-remitting MS progress to a later stage called secondary
progressive multiple sclerosis. In this stage, they experience a steady
worsening of irreversible neurological damage.

The 21 patients in the trial, ages 20 to 53, had relapsing-remitting
multiple sclerosis that had not responded to at least six months of
treatment with interferon beta. The patients had had MS for an average
of five years. After an average follow-up of three years after
transplantation, 17 patients (81 percent) improved by at least one point
on a disability scale. The disease also stabilized in all patients.

In the procedure, Burt and colleagues treated patients with
chemotherapy to destroy their immune system. They then injected the
patients with their own immune stem cells, obtained from the patients'
blood before the chemotherapy, to create a new immune system. The
procedure is called autologous non-myeloablative haematopoietic
stem-cell transplantion.

"We focus on destroying only the immune component of the bone marrow
and then regenerate the immune component, which makes the procedure much
safer and less toxic than traditional chemotherapy for cancer," Burt
said. After the transplantation, the patient's new lymphocytes or immune
cells are self-tolerant and do not attack the immune system.

"In MS the immune system is attacking your brain," Burt said. "After
the procedure, it doesn't do that anymore."

In previous studies, Burt had transplanted immune stem cells into
late-stage MS patients. "It didn't help in the late stages, but when we
treat them in the early stage, they get better and continue to get
better," he said.

"What we did is promising and exiting, but we need to prove it in a
randomized trial," Burt noted. He has launched a randomized national
trial.

Stem Cells Whistle up a Windpipe

The story involved a woman named Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old mother of two from Barcelona, Spain. Castillo's windpipe was badly damaged by long-term tuberculosis. Her left lung had collapsed and she faced the possibility of having the lung removed, a dangerous option that would have severely restricted her quality of life.
But then her doctors decided upon a different, pioneering approach to Claudia's problem: they grew a new windpipe using stem cells. The entire procedure, which included doctors working in three different countries - Spain, Italy and England - was almost too fantastic to believe.
First, the doctors got a windpipe from an organ donor. That windpipe was used as a kind of scaffold upon which the stem cells would be placed and where they would be manipulated to grow a new windpipe.
Of course, stem cell research has been a hot-button political topic for years because much of it has involved the use of embryonic stem cell tissue, which is typically derived from aborted fetuses. But in this procedure, doctors used adult stem cells to grow the new windpipe.
And here's the best part: the stem cells weren't just from any adult; they were from Claudia's own body. The doctors in England took a sample of Claudia's bone marrow from her hip, and after millions of cells had been produced, injected various chemicals to induce the cells to turn into highly specialized cells that would create the new windpipe grown on the scaffolding provided by the donated one.
All of which is very good news, and not just because it avoids the ethical and moral implications that accompany embryonic stem cells. The truly great benefit here is that the new windpipe in Claudia's throat contains her own DNA because it was constructed using her own stem cells. Thus, rejection by the body isn't an issue as it is in typical organ transplants.
By the time her story was published, in mid-November, Claudia was already home and, in her own words, "enjoying life and ... very happy that my illness has been cured."
While the early results are encouraging, the doctors and scientists involved cautioned that this is only a halting first step. But it's a promising step, and some of the doctors voiced real optimism, saying that this technique might even be adapted to other organs. And another said that while it's still years away, one day we may be able to produce organs in the laboratory using a patient's own stem cells, without the need of donor organs to use as templates.
So, as it stands, really significant advancement in growing new organs from stem cells that could cure many of our diseases is still well in the future, if it happens at all. But if does happen, this story - which was barely noticed amidst the political turmoil, economic upheaval and deadly natural disasters of 2008 - may end up being like the little ray of hope that flew out of the Pandora's box of 2008.

The Cruelty of Clinical Trials for Crohn’s Disease

Right now there are millions of individuals whose lives are directly dependent on the rate at which new drugs come to market. I'm one of them. I'm fighting for my life.
To date, half of my intestine has been removed to manage Crohn's disease. Last year, at age 23, I enrolled in a clinical trial for a treatment that could save my life: an adult stem-cell therapy that helps damaged intestinal tissue regenerate from the relentless inflammation and scarring caused by Crohn's.
The sponsor, Osiris Therapeutics, reported that Crohn's patients in the therapy's Phase II trial all experienced clinical improvement after receiving the cells. A Phase III trial for the treatment is now nearing completion, but Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval could be years away, despite its FDA "fast track" designation.
In accordance with antiquated FDA policies, the Phase III trial is randomized with three groups of patients, and double-blinded, which means neither the doctors nor patients are told what treatment is being administered. One group received full-strength stem cells, another received half-strength, and a third got a placebo (the proverbial "sugar pill"). It appears I got the placebo.
Foregoing all other treatments, I received the four scheduled infusions, and yet my disease progressed with a vengeance. In a matter of weeks, I became dangerously malnourished. I've since been readmitted to the hospital countless times, as my doctors continue to plead with Osiris for information. But Osiris has refused, citing adherence to FDA protocol.
I am now a lab rat. I have no right to know what happened to me in the study, nor do I have a right to try the promising treatment as my health deteriorates. It doesn't have to be this way.
Under the Fifth Amendment's guarantee that "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law," a critically ill patient should have access to a potentially lifesaving drug that has been deemed safe for human consumption, if the patient agrees to bear the risks involved. But earlier this year, the Supreme Court refused to hear a case on the issue, denying countless patients their right to pursue life.
Thankfully, some members of Congress have stepped in to ensure our rights as patients. In May, Sen. Sam Brownback (R., Kan.) and Rep. Diane Watson (D., Calif.) introduced the Access, Compassion, Care and Ethics for Seriously Ill Patients Act. If passed, this bipartisan legislation will begin to restore the rights of millions of patients by widening access to promising investigational drugs.
Human clinical research is an intricate scientific and moral process, but it does not justify taking immoral advantage of patients. Tragically, FDA and Osiris think it does.
Typical approval protocols almost always guarantee patients taking the placebo access to the actual drug -- at the very least -- after the study has ended. But in what appears to me a deliberate act of cruelty, Osiris hung its patients out to dry without any recourse, refusing to confirm which patient got what. The FDA has endorsed Osiris's decision by enabling it to proceed with the study.
Withholding a potential cure is just as bad -- if not worse -- than the potential death sentence of a serious illness. If patients like myself have the audacity to put their lives on the line for the betterment of science and those in their predicament, their decision should not only be embraced, it should be rewarded.
Furthermore, trials without ethical recourse can lead to inadequate and incomplete data, compromising the integrity of the study. If trial patients are treated like lab rats, they won't feel obliged to cooperate unconditionally and report accurate data -- something the FDA and the drug industry rely on heavily, but have failed to consider.
Everyone agrees it is a fundamental right for patients to dictate their course of treatment with FDA-approved drugs. So why do the rules evaporate at the most critical moment, when the only life-preserving options are highly promising investigational drugs?
Mr. Sofer is a student at the University of California, Berkeley.

The “Wrong” Cure

Adult stem cells get the shaft.

By Wesley J. Smith

Copied from google blogs today - yet another example of how the public are being denied access to the wonders of adult stem cell therapy. Shame on you Larry King.

Members of the liberal media elite have become rather choosy when it comes to advocating stem-cell cures for degenerative medical conditions. To these commentators, cures using adult stem cells just aren't the "right" cures. For stem-cell therapy to really count, it has to come from embryos. Indeed, even the most astonishing research advances using adult cells are ignored by these arbiters of public policy as if they never happened. And since liberal elites dominate public discourse in the stem-cell debate, the American people remain generally unaware of these astonishing scientific advances.

No media personality epitomizes the elite liberal media mindset more than CNN's Larry King. It thus came as no surprise that King cared nothing about adult-stem-cell research breakthroughs when the noted artist, evangelist, and disability-rights activist Joni Eareckson Tada raised the issue in an August interview.

Tada has been quadriplegic since breaking her back in a diving accident at age 17. In recent years, she has become an outspoken opponent of human cloning and of federally funded embryonic-stem-cell research. It was in this context that Tada accepted King's offer to introduce her to Christopher Reeve, the paralyzed former movie star who has become the world's most famous advocate for using human cloning and embryonic stem cells to find cures:

King: He [Reeve] thinks he's going to walk.

Tada: That may very well happen using incredible therapies...using adult stem cell research. It is absolutely amazing what is happening. Dr. Carlos Lima in Lisbon, Portugal, has helped restore bladder and muscle control to people with paralysis using stem cells from their own nasal tissue.

Take a moment and think about what Tada told King. Paralyzed people with serious spinal injuries like those afflicting Tada and Reeve have regained feeling in their bodies using adult-tissue therapies. Assuming that King was unaware of these advances — always a good assumption, given that King prides himself on not preparing for interviews — he should have been thunderstruck by this big news. Tada's assertion should have prompted an immediate follow-up question demanding more details. Had King done this, Tada might have then told him that one of the paralyzed women treated by Dr. Lima with her own olfactory tissue had recently appeared before a Senate subcommittee and presented videos of herself walking with braces!

But King never even attempted to follow up. Indeed, he wasn't the least bit curious about the tremendous news that human patients with serious spinal-cord injury may be able to walk again if these early human trials using adult tissue pan out. Instead, almost reflexively, he promoted embryonic-stem-cell research, stating, "Everyone says it will be faster if embryonic is also used. Nancy Reagan is going to campaign strongly for that."

Tada told King patiently that she opposes embryonic-stem-cell research, in part because she advocates channeling scarce resources "into [adult] therapies which have the most promise, which are the most effective." She then told King about the dangers associated with embryonic stem cells of which he might be unaware, such as tissue rejection and tumors.

King shrugged this off, asserting that problems always happen in the beginning of research studies. "That's true," Tada acknowledged. And then she tried again to get King to just hear how far adult-tissue research has already advanced. "Right now," she said, "incredible therapies" are happening "with their own stem cells, whether dental pulp or nasal tissues, or bone-marrow tissues."

For a second time in two minutes Tada had presented King with the opportunity to provide his audience with a wonderful educational opportunity. Had he followed up, even skeptically, by demanding that Tada give examples of these incredible breakthroughs, she could have told him about human heart patients who have already benefited from treatment with their own bone marrow or blood stem cells. She could have given great hope to people with Parkinson's disease by describing the successes already achieved treating patients with adult cells and their derivatives. Perhaps she would have mentioned the wonderful news that in an early human trial, a patient with multiple sclerosis so advanced that he experienced bouts of blindness appears to have been put into almost total remission using his own stem cells.

But King's viewing audience was not allowed to learn any of this, because King did not inquire. Instead, he demanded to know who is harmed by embryonic-stem-cell research and asked whether she would agree to debate Christopher Reeve. Then, it was quickly on to other matters. Clearly, for King, stem-cell medical advances only count if they come from embryonic sources.

King is not alone in this incredibly myopic approach to the stem-cell debate. Other elite liberal commentators are just as narrow in their views about adult-stem-cell research. For example, Laura Bush's recent defense of her husband's stem-cell policy sent several elite liberal commentators into apoplectic orbit. Cynthia Tucker's August 13 syndicated column, "Bush's Policy on Stem-Cell Research Has No Good Defense," was especially nasty — and typically ignorant of the current state of the science.

Charging that only religious extremism stands in the way of stem-cell advances, Tucker accused the president of limiting research "that could...lead to cures for Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and even some cancers. Some of those cures could be decades away. But we can't get there until we get started."

Tucker either didn't take the time to discover, or doesn't care, that we are already well under way to finding such cures! As stated above, human patients with the very diseases Tucker mentioned have already benefited from adult-tissue therapies. Animal studies have advanced even further. For example, mice with advanced-stage juvenile diabetes have been cured with adult cell therapies. Yet instead of embracing these advances, Tucker complained, "I certainly don't understand a 21st-century superpower that devotes billions to building smart bombs to destroy life efficiently but refuses to fund the research that could save or enhance the lives of millions of its citizens."

Ignorance, thy name is Tucker. Apparently she is unaware that the federal government poured more than $200 million into adult-stem-cell research and about $25 million into embryonic-stem-cell research in 2003. In addition, private investors have abundantly invested in adult-stem-cell research, while generally shunning embryonic and human cloning research, largely because adult therapies are so much closer to fruition than embryonic approaches.

Apparently, Tucker would put her political views before the current state of the science and reverse this funding ratio. But this would be most unwise. It could delay bringing regenerative cures to the American people by diverting resources away from adult-cell cures already in early human trials and toward embryonic research that can't even be done safely in humans — a point made by Joni Eareckson Tada that bounced off Larry King's forehead.

Amazingly, the ideological fervor in favor of using nascent human life in stem-cell treatments is so intense that it prevents even liberal media elites who suffer from these diseases from embracing emerging treatments that use adult cells. Michael Kinsley, the editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times, is a puzzling case in point. Kinsley has Parkinson's. One would think he would be extremely interested in the successful experiment involving fellow Parkinson's patient Dennis Turner, who five years ago received an 83 percent reversal of his symptoms after a treatment using his own brain stem cells. Kinsley should also find great hope in the results of another human trial in which five Parkinson's patients, treated with a natural body chemical known as glial cell-line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), improved so significantly that three regained their senses of taste and smell.

But Kinsley is blind to this wonderful news. In a diatribe against Laura Bush and the president, Kinsley claimed that "stem cell research has been drastically slowed" by the president's stem-cell policy (again, apparently, the only real stem-cell research is embryonic-stem-cell research). Working himself into a blind rage, Kinsley accused President Bush of "ensuring there is no hope at all" for people like him who suffer from Parkinson's disease — a statement exhibiting sheer indifference to the very facts that hold out true hope for Kinsley's own health problems.

Media opponents of President Bush's stem-cell policy often accuse the president of deciding science questions based on religious beliefs. But they are the ones whose ideological predilections and personal antipathy for political opponents are making them incapable of appreciating the evidence. As the old saying goes, none are so blind as those who will not see.

Clinical Data of VesCell Used On Heart Disease Patients

Dr. Zannos Grekos, a cardiologist who uses VesCell Adult Stem Cells to treat his heart disease patients, was a featured speaker at the 16th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine & Regenerative Biomedical Technologies in Las Vegas that ran from December 11th-14th. He presented clinical data showing that Vescell Stem Cell therapy definitely helps patients with congestive heart failure.

Dr. Grekos also announced that his work "has spurred a project entailing growing organs for transplant from patients' own stem cells using technology developed by National Aeronautic Space Association (NASA)." That is something to look forward to in the hopefully near future.

However, let's concentrate now on Dr. Grekos' results: He reported that the average patient had his ejection fraction increase 21 percentage points and had reversed heart muscle damage

Dr. Grekos also stated that his patients on average had gone from Stage IV Heart Failure (End Stage Heart Failure) and then improved to Stage II Heart Failure in approximately 6 months! And for you cardiologists out there- the clinical data from PET scans confirmed that VesCell Adult Stem Cells do indeed "engraft themselves into areas damaged by myocardial infarction (heart attacks) and turn into viable new heart muscle."

Hector Rosario, MD, chief of Interventional Cardiology for the Dominican Republic division of Regenocyte, is thrilled with the clinical outcomes to date. "It is personally very gratifying to alter the prognosis in patients who have exhausted all other options,"

Well said Dr. Rosario. VesCell stem cell therapy can give patient's a new lease on life with minimal risk since the patient's use their own Adult Stem Cells to help heal their heart disease or peripheral artery disease

Help is available right now.

Stroke Breakthrough With Stem Cell Therapy

The sudden onset of stroke is devastating and leads to temporary and/or permanent disability to speech, sensation, memory and motor neuron damage. The damage is caused by a bleeding or blocked cerebral blood vessel leading to local brain damaged areas with loss of neurons and glial cells.An effective stem cell therapy exists that may offer improvement. With the discovery of stem cell therapy abroad, there comes new hope.

Although there are niches and reservoirs of stem cells in the adult brain their numbers are not sufficient to restore neurological function. Umbilical cord blood has stem cells that are pluripotent in their ability to be transformed into many precursor cells of various organs in the body including the brain.

Umbilical cord blood stem cells when placed into culture with nerve growth factor, brain neurotrophic factor and nutrients can form precursor progenitor brain stem cells.

Patients with post stroke syndrome (even for many years) can be given intravenous brain stem cells, oligodendrocytes to replace myelin and neuron stem cells. These cells will home (migrate) to areas of damaged brain tissue with hopes of functional recovery with stem cell treatment abroad.

Disclaimer: This blog or article is for information purpose only, and should not be treated as professional advice or price protection guarantee.

The dangers of injecting animal stem cells

The therapy is illegal in the West, but according to the Thai newspaper The Nation patients are willing to pay between £2,000 to £20,000 in Bangkok to receive the treatment which is claimed to remove facial wrinkles.
"Some patients might go into [anaphylactic] shock after receiving several doses of animal stem cells, especially those who have hyper sensitive reactions," warned Dr Tanom Bunaprasert, a medical professor at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.
Dr Tanom also pointed out that there is no proven medical benefit to the procedure. "The feeling of a younger face is caused by the placebo effect, not stem cells that are injected into their faces," he said.
Because the stem cells from an alien organism stimulate an antibody response from the human immune system, doctors say they massively increase the likelihood that the patient would reject a donor organ if they ever require a transplant in the future.
Other stem cell therapies are also practised in Thailand. Experimental adult stem cell therapy for failing hearts and for peripheral artery disease caused by diabetes are both available in Bangkok, and some doctors have questioned whether the procedures are a medical breakthrough.
Thailand is a popular destination for "medical tourists" seeking often high-quality medical care that may be unavailable or more expensive in other countries.
Cosmetic surgery is a particular speciality and is widely advertised.
Advertisements claim that a full sex change procedure can be obtained for only around £3000.
Dr Tanom also warned against other supposedly stem cell based cosmetic treatments which are widely advertised in print and on the internet.
He said that animal stem cell based creams and lotions are of no possible benefit because the stem cells would die long before they are applied to the skin and, besides, stem cells are too large to penetrate the skin and have any effect.
Likewise, food products purporting to be beneficially enriched with animal stem cells are a fraud, he said.
"Stem cell food has very poor nutritious ingredients," according to Dr Tanom. "You eat numerous stem cells every day for a long time from meat, chicken, fish and pork but you don't know it."