Stem cells banish autoimmune disease for 15 years

steelframe

This isn't really news to many people with multiple sclerosis (MS). In fact, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is often misdiagnosed as MS. I think it was 10 or so years ago that a movement swept over the MS community where people were flying overseas to get allogeneic haematopoietic stem-cell transplants (HSCT). Medical clinics in Israel, India, and Russia (among others) were actively treating foreign patients with MS with HSCT. The Multiple Sclerosis Society has had an info page on it for years now. The main reason you don't see people with MS lining up for HSCT these days is because of how effective the drugs released around the year 2020 that target B-cells have been. Clinical and symptomatic results from the new FDA-approved drugs tend to be about as good, and they're much, much safer. And you don't have to fly to some sketch practice in Moscow to get your bone marrow chemically burnt to a crisp followed by an attempt to re-seed it with your stem cells harvested before the chemo. All the while you're praying you don't get an infection while you wait to see if your immune system successfully reboots from the stem cells. That said, for the very few people who don't respond to traditional drugs, HSCT is better than the alternative, which would be a horrific steady loss of function as your immune system chews up your central nervous system.