Stem cells could repair myelin in nerve cells and in the future could be used to generate new nerve cells. Stem cells do not yet cure multiple sclerosis. But they could slow down, stop, or even reverse the progression of the disease.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease in which a person’s immune system begins to attack and destroy myelin sheaths. When neurons become demyelinated, they stop transmitting signals correctly and begin to die. This causes the symptoms of MS.
Brain stem cells naturally tend to repair and replenish damaged myelin. But the immune system of MS patients attacks it again.
Currently, there are no cell replacement therapies for MS, but there are promising studies using stem cells to “reboot” the patient’s immune system.
Researchers
Researchers want to use stem cells to study MS and find ways to prevent or repair myelin damage.
Some studies propose using chemotherapy to destroy a person’s immune system and, in a second phase, using stem cells to create a new immune system that does not attack myelin.
Clinical trials registered in the ICH GCP U.S. Clinical Trials Registry have yielded positive results and are now available as a treatment for MS patients who do not respond to the best disease-modifying treatments.
Researchers are studying treatments and drugs that harness, or even enhance, the natural ability of stem cells to repair myelin.
They are also trying to develop stem cell treatments to replace nerves destroyed by various neurological diseases, including MS.
What are the challenges?
Autoimmune diseases attack the individual’s cells. This makes them very difficult to treat.
Total blockade of the immune system is not a viable treatment option because the patient would not be able to fight possible infections.
Another difficulty in developing treatments for MS is that there are many possible reasons why the immune system starts attacking the myelin sheath. In conclusion, the trigger for the disease can be completely different from one patient to another.
We still do not fully understand how the nervous system creates the myelin sheath, making it difficult to develop treatments to repair it.
Stem Cell Therapies for Multiple Sclerosis
Stem cells are part of the body’s repair system. This is done by generating new cells to replace those damaged or dead. There are different types of stem cells, and scientists are investigating different ways to use them to develop therapies for multiple sclerosis:
First, prevent damage: Certain types of stem cells can be used to ‘reboot’ the immune system (known as immunomodulation). The goal is to prevent the immune system from attacking nerve cells or to reduce the amount of damage.
Second, repair damage: Stem cells could help repair damaged myelin sheaths, ‘remyelinating’ nerves and allowing them to function again. This could prevent the nerves themselves from degenerating. In the future, we may be able to use stem cells to allow the growth of lost nerves. However, this has not yet been achieved.
Development of new medicines: Stem cells can be used to grow nerve cells in the laboratory. These cells can be used to study how MS works and also to test new drugs.
These different interventions offer various advantages that can be used for the treatment of different types of MS, or at different stages.
Finally, If you want to know more, visit our article on What Are Stem Cells.
