MULTIPLE SCLOROSIS,support,news,stem cell treatment information

treatment of multiple sclorosis

2009-02-19T15:36:00.000+02:00

Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Currently, there is no prevention or cure for MS; however, there are medications available to lessen the severity and frequency of MS attacks and treat many of the symptoms.

Muscle stiffness and weakness may be aided by physical therapy. Exercise can help preserve strength and function. Patients with difficulty walking or transferring may benefit from the use of assistive devices such as canes, walkers, or wheelchairs. After each attack, therapy is often needed to restore function optimally.

Avoidance of over-exhaustion, emotional stress, and a rise in body temperature (from a hot bath or hot and humid weather, for example) may reduce the symptoms of MS. Patients should follow a well-balanced, nutritionally sound diet and maintain a desirable weight, especially in those with limited exercise capacity.

When a patient experiences an acute MS attack (relapse), intravenous steroids are often used to help patients recover more quickly. Other related drugs (such as oral steroids and ACTH) are being used less frequently, but may be more effective in certain patients. Steroids suppress the immune system and may reduce the inflammatory attack on nerve cells in the brain.

In patients with relapsing-remitting MS, the use of interferons (Avonex, Betaseron, Rebif) and glatiramer acetate (Copaxone) may reduce the frequency of attacks as well as progressive disability from these attacks. In some circumstances, a chemotherapy agent, mitoxantrone (Novantrone) may be required. The exact mechanism of interferons and glatiramer acetate are not completely understood. However, it is believed that these agents alter the immune system and prevent some inflammatory cells from leaving blood vessels to enter the brain or spinal cord.

Other treatment is aimed at reducing the symptoms of MS such as pain, weakness, stiffness (spasticity), fatigue, and bladder, bowel, or sexual dysfunction.

Pain and tingling sensations may be controlled with simple analgesics. In some patients, sensory symptoms are better controlled with anti-depressants or anti-convulsants.

To treat spasticity, medications such as Lioresal (Baclofen), dantrolene (Dantrium), diazepam, tizanadine (Zanaflex) and clonazepam (Klonopin) have proven effective. Injections of botulinum toxin may be helpful, especially for patients with focal areas of spasticity. In severe spasticity, medications may be delivered directly into the spinal fluid by a pump implanted under the skin.

To treat fatigue, medications such as pemoline (Cylert), amantadine (Symmetrel) and modafanil (Provigil) may help. Other patients with coexisting depression may also be helped by the use of antidepressants.

As patients with bladder dysfunction may be susceptible to urinary tract infections, a Urological evaluation may be needed. Some patients may need medications to reduce bladder spasms, while others may need to catheterize themselves to assist in emptying their bladder and in preventing complications.

President Obama set to lift ban on stem cell reasearch

2009-02-19T00:02:00.005+02:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will soon issue an executive order lifting an eight-year ban embryonic stem cell research imposed by his predecessor, President George W. Bush, a senior adviser said on Sunday.

"We're going to be doing something on that soon, I think. The president is considering that right now," Obama adviser David Axelrod said on "Fox News Sunday."

In 2001, Bush limited federal funding for stem cell research only to human embryonic stem cell lines that already existed. It was a gesture to his conservative Christian supporters who regard embryonic stem cell research as destroying potential life, because the cells must be extracted from human embryos.

Embryonic stem cells are the most basic human cells which can develop into any type of cell in the body.

Scientists believe the research could eventually produce cures for a variety of diseases, including Parkinson's disease, diabetes, heart disease and spinal cord injuries.

Obama vowed to reverse Bush's ban during his presidential campaign and in his inaugural address last month promised to return science to its proper place in the United States.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month cleared the way for the first trial to see if human embryonic stem cells could treat people safely.

The trial will try to use stem cells from already existing lines to regrow nerve tissue in patients with crushed spinal cords.

Stem cells are the body's master cells, giving rise to all the tissues, organs and blood. Embryonic stem cells are considered the most powerful kinds of stem cells, as they have the potential to give rise to any type of tissue.

(Reporting by Alan Elsner; Editing by Eric Beech)

history of stem cell research

2009-02-18T22:57:00.001+02:00

Stem Cell Research
History

Scientists have been interested in cell biology since the advent of microscopes in the 1800’s. Cell propagation and differentiation were witnessed for the first time and cells were recognized as the building blocks of life, capable of giving rise to other cells and key to understanding human development.

In the early 1900’s European researchers realised that the various type of blood cells e.g white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets all came from a particular ‘stem cell’. However, it was not until 1963 that the first quantitative descriptions of the self-renewing activities of transplanted mouse bone marrow cells were documented by Canadian researchers Ernest A McCulloch and James E Till.

Research into adult stem cells in animals and in humans has been ongoing since this time, and bone marrow transplantsResearch into adult stem cells in animals and in humans has been ongoing since this time, and bone marrow transplants – actually a transplant of adult stem cells – have in fact been used in patients receiving radiation and chemotherapy since the 1950’s.

Developments in biotechnology in the 1980s and 1990s saw the introduction of techniques for targeting and altering genetic material and methods for growing human cells in the laboratory. These advances really opened the doors for human stem cell research.

Then in 1998 James Thomson, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, successfully removed cells from spare embryos at fertility clinics and grew them in the laboratory. He launched stem cell research into the limelight, establishing the world’s first human embryonic stem cell line which still exists today.

Since this discovery, a plethora of evidence has emerged to suggest that these embryonic stem cells are capable of becoming almost any of the specialised cells in the body and therefore have the potential to generate replacement cells for a broad array of tissues and organs such as the heart, liver, pancreas and nervous system.

Progress in stem cell research is now astounding, with over 2,000 research papers on embryonic and adult stem cells being published in reputable scientific journals every year. Embryonic stem cell research has yet to yield any clinical trials however; adult stem cells are already being used in treatments for over one hundred conditions including leukaemia, Hunter’s syndrome and heart disease.

The possibilities for stem research are truly endless, and yet unpredictable. If scientists can master the biochemistry behind stem cell development, stem cell technology could be used to produce replaceable tissues or organs and to repair defective tissues/organs damaged or destroyed by many of our most devastating diseases and disabilities.

We are on the cusp of a major stem cell breakthrough and must support promising basic and clinical research to realise this goal.

Drug offers hope for Multiple Schlorosis sufferers

2009-02-17T14:32:00.002+02:00

A drug which was developed in Cambridge and initially designed to treat a form of leukaemia has also proven effective against combating the debilitating neurological disease multiple sclerosis (MS).

The study, led by researchers from the University of Cambridge, has found that alemtuzumab not only stops MS from advancing in patients with early stage active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) but may also restore lost function caused by the disease. The findings were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Alemtuzumab has a long connection with Cambridge, England. In 1984, Cambridge scientist Cesar Milstein was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, jointly with George Kohler, for inventing the technology to make large quantities of a desired type of monoclonal antibody. Further work in Cambridge, by Herman Waldmann and Greg Winter, led to the production of the first humanised monoclonal antibody for use as a medicine, Campath-1H, now known as alemtuzumab. It has been licensed for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, and has also been tested in several diseases where the immune system is overactive, such as multiple sclerosis.

The new study, which was funded by Genzyme and Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany , found that alemtuzumab reduces the number of attacks experienced by people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis by 74 per cent over and above that achieved with interferon beta-1a, one of the most effective licensed therapies for similar cases of MS. More importantly, alemtuzumab also reduced the risk of sustained accumulation of disability by 71 per cent compared to interferon beta-1a.

Additionally, the investigators showed that many individuals in the trial who received alemtuzumab recovered some of their lost functions and so were less disabled after three years than at the beginning of the study, in contrast to worsening disability in the interferon beta-1a treated patients. These findings suggest that alemtuzumab may allow damaged brain tissue to repair, enabling the recovery of neurologic functions lost following poor recovery from previous MS attacks.

The new research shows that alemtuzumab is a much more effective treatment for early-stage RRMS than the currently approved drug interferon beta-1a. However, as the study was a Phase 2 clinical trial, additional research will need to be conducted before the drug is considered for approval in the treatment of MS.

"Alemtuzumab is the most promising experimental drug for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, and we are hopeful that the Phase 3 trials will confirm that it can both stabilize and allow some recovery of what had previously been assumed to be irreversible disabilities," says the principal investigator Alastair Compston, Professor of Neurology and the Head of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease which is caused by the body's immune system attacking nerve fibres and their protective insulation, the myelin sheath, in the central nervous system. This damage prevents the nerves from 'firing' properly, and then leads to their destruction, resulting in physical and intellectual disabilities. Alemtuzumab works by destroying one population of white blood cell (lymphocytes) and, by shutting down the immune system, inhibits the damage to brain tissue that occurs in MS.

"The ability of an MS drug to promote brain repair is unprecedented. We are witnessing a drug which, if given early enough, might effectively stop the advancement of the disease and also restore lost function by promoting repair of the damaged brain tissue," says Dr Alasdair Coles, University Lecturer at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge who coordinated many aspects of the study.

The main side effect of treatment is, paradoxically, that people can develop other autoimmune diseases as the immune system gradually recovers following exposure to alemtuzumab. During the trial, 20% of people treated with alemtuzumab developed an over- or under-active thyroid gland. Rarely (3%) people developed a low platelet count and were vulnerable to bleeding. This complication led to one fatality during the trial. Although potentially very serious, this complication can be easily treated if recognised early.

The Phase 2 clinical study involved 334 patients who had been diagnosed with early-stage RRMS but had not previously been treated. Patients either received alemtuzumab (one of two dose levels intravenously for five days initially and three days of re-treatment 12 months later) or interferon beta-1a (given by injection three times per week). The patients were followed for three years to determine the efficacy of the treatments as well as the effect on the patients' disabilities.

MS affects almost 100,000 people in the United Kingdom, 400,000 in the United States and several million worldwide. Symptoms of the disease can include loss of physical skills, sensation, vision, bladder control, and intellectual abilities.

1. The paper, 'Alemtuzumab versus Interferon beta-1a in Early, Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis', is published in the 23 October 2008 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

History of alemtuzumab and Cambridge

Alemtuzumab (previously known as Campath-1H) was first created by academics at Cambridge University in the late 1970s. The drug was shown to be useful in treating leukemia by killing the cancerous white cells of the immune system. It was also used experimentally to treat autoimmune diseases, where the white cells of the immune system are not cancerous but are targeting and damaging normal parts of the body. It was believed that a 'short sharp shock' to the immune system by alemtuzumab would re-educate' the immune system and stop it from fighting the healthy tissues in the body.

Since 1991, Professor Alastair Compston, principal investigator of this study, has been exploring the use of alemtuzumab as an experimental treatment of multiple sclerosis. Dr Alasdair Coles joined the team in 1994 and has since had primary responsibility for most practical aspects of the work. The scientists initially treated individuals with severe forms of the disease in whom disability was already well advanced. Although alemtuzumab successfully stopped new attacks of multiple sclerosis in these people, their disability continued to get worse.

The doctors realized that once the immune system has attacked the insulating covering to the nerves in the brain (the myelin sheath), the consequent secondary damage to the underlying nerves continues unabated, even if the immune attack has been turned off by alemtuzumab. It was at this stage that they decided to treat people with much earlier multiple sclerosis, before there was too much permanent damage in the brain and spinal cord.

The clinical trial was sponsored by Genzyme, who own the rights to develop Campath® and have strongly supported the MS programme. Genzyme and Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany are co-developing alemtuzumab in oncology, multiple sclerosis and other indications. Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany holds exclusive worldwide marketing and distribution rights to alemtuzumab.

Relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) is the most common form of MS. It is often followed by secondary-progressive MS (SPMS) which is a more disabling form of the disease.

Source
Genevieve Maul
University of Cambridge
Office of Communications
http://www.cam.ac.uk

The Holy Grail for MS sufferers

2009-02-17T13:11:00.001+02:00

As yet, there is no widely accepted cure for multiple sclerosis (MS).

Currently the majority of research focuses on investigating the possible causes of the disease, drug treatments and how to alleviate, slow or suppress symptoms. Worldwide there are hundreds of research projects all looking into different aspects of the disease in the hope that one day there will be a cure.

Meanwhile researchers are desperately trying to find a definitive cause. They need to understand the disease itself better before finding ways to prevent or cure it.

See our new feedback and Multiple Sclerosis update section

In 2004 The National Multiple Sclerosis Society (http://www.nmss.org) committed $35 million to more than 300 global research projects. According to the society's vice president of research programs, Stephen Reingold, the investment is paying off with new treatments, better diagnosis, symptom management and rehabilitation for people with MS.

Genetic research is discovering that there is no MS gene but there could be a combination of genes that are susceptible to the disease. Studies are looking at how these can be isolated to prevent the illness.

Immune studies are looking at how the immune system can be suppressed to prevent it attacking the protective myelin surrounding the nerves in the spinal cord and brain. Myelin degeneration is believed to be a cause of MS.

Other studies are focusing on finding out why women more susceptible to the disease and why MS is more prevalent in some parts of the world than others. Several research studies have shown that MS is predominantly a disease affecting people in the western and northern hemispheres. There are theories, as yet unproven, that environmental agents such as viruses and bacteria may contribute to the onset of the disease and that daylight and seasonal changes may have something to do with it.

Monitoring patients is a time consuming and lengthy process and the results of much of this research won't be known for several years.
Multiple Sclerosis Stem Cell Research

Studies into how damaged tissue may be repaired or replaced are among the most exciting and controversial developments. Researchers are looking at how stem cells can be cultured to replace the lost cells which provide insulation to some nerves. The aim is to restore the transmission of electrical impulses and get wasted muscles working again.

It's highly controversial because of the ethics involved in using stem cells from aborted foetuses. Back in 1998 it was found that when these cells were grown in laboratory conditions they could become almost all of the specialized cells in the body. This holds huge promise of being able to repair the damaged myelin sheath which protects the nerves. Ultimately this would be the longed for cure for multiple sclerosis.

According to Dr Samuel Ludwin, a neuropathologist at Canada 's Queen's University in Kingston , stem cell research is the key to conquering MS. But all this is a long way off. The ethical debate still rages and controlled research has only been done in laboratory conditions on animals.

While research continues into ways to provide a better quality of life for those with MS by improving drug treatment and early detection, the Holy Grail of scientists and sufferers is that elusive cure.

introduction

2009-02-15T14:30:00.003+02:00

Hi and good day to you all.My name is Greg and I live in the artic lounge of the North(Finland)I was diagnosed with PPMS in 2006,I guess in hindsight I knew there was something wrong.My balance gradually deteriorated over a oeriod of 6 years,my vision worsened every time i visited the optician.I wont go into all the details as those of you who suffer from this desease know only to well the symptons.Suffice to say it slowly consumes your inner strentgh.I have started this blog with a renewed hope,in that president Obama has indicated that feotus stem cell research in the states can now go ahead.I am relieved with this news.I was looking at having to go too the Dominican Republic for treatment.I invite people to freely post their views on this and other subjects relating to Multiple Schlerosis and its effects on sufferers themselves and thier families