Multiple Sclerosis could be treated through a new strategy of replacing bone marrow with the body’s own stem cells, claim researchers in Greece.
The research team from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Medical School in Greece kept track of 35 patients who had received stem cell transplants and observed how the aggressive form of the disease was halted in its progress. The process known as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) involved removing the immune cells in the bone marrow of a patient and replacing it with healthy stem cells. This was expected to stop the immune system from attacking its own nerves.
The study reports that 80 percent of patients receiving HSCT treatment had stabilized disease after five years. After 15 years, 25 per cent of the 35 patients have been stabilized. Only 2 participants died due to complication resulting from the transplant.
Study researcher Vasilios Kimiskidis states that this strategy should not be administered to everyone, but only to those who have the aggressive form of the disease. It needs to be viewed as a “salvage” therapy for the severest form of MS.
Richard Nash, MD, an oncologist and member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, analyzes that it can be difficult for researchers to tell if an improvement would have happened naturally or if it is the result of treatment because patients sometimes go through periods where their disease appears to be dormant before it becomes active again.
Many studies looking into stem cell transplants are being done which will offer, it is hoped, more conclusive results. Till then, the treatment would have to be considered experimental in MS.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Medically Refractory epilepsy
Approximately 40% of all individuals with epilepsy have medically refractory seizures. Primarily generalized seizures are the most common type of intractable seizures in children; while in adults, complex partial seizures are the most common intractable seizure type. Medically refractory seizures are those seizures that are not completely controlled by medical therapy. That means that seizures continue to occur despite treatment with a maximally tolerated dose of a first-line anti-epilepsy drug (AED) as monotherapy or in at least one combination with an adjuvant medication. The terms "intractable" or "medically refractory" are interchangeable.
Factors Associated With Medically Refractory Seizures
Certain epilepsy etiologies frequently cause intractable seizures. The catastrophic epilepsies are most commonly seen in infants and children. While just about any seizure type may be associated with medically refractory seizures, it is uncommon for absence seizures associated with primarily generalized 3 Hertz spike-and-wave on the electroencephalogram (EEG) to be resistant to the appropriate therapy. This seizure type is typically well controlled with ethosuximide.
Medically refractory seizures produce many psychological and social difficulties. Recurrent seizures impair socialization and psychological development during formative years and may lead to an inability to obtain an education, gainful employment, or driving privileges. The development of a learned helplessness and low self-esteem can worsen as long as epilepsy is intractable. Cognitive performance may be impaired by refractory epilepsy as well as by the effects of AED therapy. Successful treatment of a seizure disorder can appreciably improve psychological, social, sexual, and behavioral functions.
Patient And Family Education
Epilepsy is still shrouded by many myths and misconceptions among the public. Although it is difficult to reverse centuries of sanctioned stigmatization concerning epilepsy, the treatment of patients with epilepsy begins with appropriate counseling for both the patient and the family. This is the first step in eliminating the misconceptions concerning epilepsy. It is important to discuss in simple terms the causes of seizures, endogenous and environmental triggers of seizures, and issues concerning safety and driving privileges at the time the diagnosis is presented. Opportunity to re-address these issues and to discuss other issues, such as pregnancy and the teratogenic effects of AEDs, should be made available.
Epilepsy can be a life-altering and debilitating illness that can rob individuals of their independence and can cause profound behavioral, psychological, social, financial and legal consequences. Those people with medically refractory seizures are the most severely effected. Over the last 50 years, tremendous advances in the knowledge of seizures and epilepsy have occurred. More recently, scientific and technical advances have improved the tools for the evaluation and treatment of seizures. In some cases, the most intractable seizure disorders of 10 to 20 years ago are now disorders that can be effectively treated. With current brain surgery techniques, some forms of medically refractory epilepsy may even be cured. Patients should be offered our best efforts to control their seizures and to improve their quality of life. The message to physicians in the year 2000 is to recognize those patients with a medically refractory seizure disorder early in the course of the illness and refer them to an appropriate epilepsy specialist or comprehensive epilepsy program.
Surgical treatment of medically refractory epilepsy
Factors Associated With Medically Refractory Seizures
Certain epilepsy etiologies frequently cause intractable seizures. The catastrophic epilepsies are most commonly seen in infants and children. While just about any seizure type may be associated with medically refractory seizures, it is uncommon for absence seizures associated with primarily generalized 3 Hertz spike-and-wave on the electroencephalogram (EEG) to be resistant to the appropriate therapy. This seizure type is typically well controlled with ethosuximide.
Medically refractory seizures produce many psychological and social difficulties. Recurrent seizures impair socialization and psychological development during formative years and may lead to an inability to obtain an education, gainful employment, or driving privileges. The development of a learned helplessness and low self-esteem can worsen as long as epilepsy is intractable. Cognitive performance may be impaired by refractory epilepsy as well as by the effects of AED therapy. Successful treatment of a seizure disorder can appreciably improve psychological, social, sexual, and behavioral functions.
Patient And Family Education
Epilepsy is still shrouded by many myths and misconceptions among the public. Although it is difficult to reverse centuries of sanctioned stigmatization concerning epilepsy, the treatment of patients with epilepsy begins with appropriate counseling for both the patient and the family. This is the first step in eliminating the misconceptions concerning epilepsy. It is important to discuss in simple terms the causes of seizures, endogenous and environmental triggers of seizures, and issues concerning safety and driving privileges at the time the diagnosis is presented. Opportunity to re-address these issues and to discuss other issues, such as pregnancy and the teratogenic effects of AEDs, should be made available.
Epilepsy can be a life-altering and debilitating illness that can rob individuals of their independence and can cause profound behavioral, psychological, social, financial and legal consequences. Those people with medically refractory seizures are the most severely effected. Over the last 50 years, tremendous advances in the knowledge of seizures and epilepsy have occurred. More recently, scientific and technical advances have improved the tools for the evaluation and treatment of seizures. In some cases, the most intractable seizure disorders of 10 to 20 years ago are now disorders that can be effectively treated. With current brain surgery techniques, some forms of medically refractory epilepsy may even be cured. Patients should be offered our best efforts to control their seizures and to improve their quality of life. The message to physicians in the year 2000 is to recognize those patients with a medically refractory seizure disorder early in the course of the illness and refer them to an appropriate epilepsy specialist or comprehensive epilepsy program.
Surgical treatment of medically refractory epilepsy
Exposure to sunlight 'helps fight multiple sclerosis'
For MS, we can provide the unique stem cells treatment www.likecell.cn
Scientists have suggested that people with multiple sclerosis should lie in the sun to fight the disease.
This was said after a new research shows that patients with higher levels of vitamin D - mainly derived from exposure to sunlight - have fewer attacks and develop the disease at a slower rate, reports the Daily Express.
The auto-immune condition is caused by the loss of nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord.
Colleen Hayes and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, believe vitamin D3 helps to control cells known as T lymphocytes which are responsible for MS.
"MS is currently incurable but environmental factors, such as vitamin D3, may hold the key to preventing MS and reducing its impact," Hayes said. (ANI)
Scientists have suggested that people with multiple sclerosis should lie in the sun to fight the disease.
This was said after a new research shows that patients with higher levels of vitamin D - mainly derived from exposure to sunlight - have fewer attacks and develop the disease at a slower rate, reports the Daily Express.
The auto-immune condition is caused by the loss of nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord.
Colleen Hayes and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, believe vitamin D3 helps to control cells known as T lymphocytes which are responsible for MS.
"MS is currently incurable but environmental factors, such as vitamin D3, may hold the key to preventing MS and reducing its impact," Hayes said. (ANI)
Scientists block multiple sclerosis in mouse model
For MS, we can provide the unique stem cells treatment www.likecell.cn
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine have managed to block the development of multiple sclerosis-like symptoms using a mouse model of the disease.
When scientists gave mice a drug that suppressed the activity of a key molecule, immune cells lined up at the boundaries of the spine instead of going in. Scientists have blocked harmful immune cells from entering the brain in mice with a condition similar to multiple sclerosis (MS).
It is important because MS is apparently caused by misdirected immune cells that enter the brain and damage myelin-an insulating material on the branches of neurons that conduct nerve impulses, said researchers.
"The results were so dramatic that we ended up producing early evidence that this compound might be helpful as a drug for MS. The harmful immune cells were unable to gain access to the brain tissue, and the mice that received the highest dosage were protected from disease," said Robyn Klein.
Klein and her colleagues discovered a chemical stairway that immune cells have to climb down to enter the brain. Immune cells that exit the blood remain along the vessels on the tissue side, climbing down from the meninges into the brain where they can then cross additional barriers and attack myelin on the branches of neurons.
"The effect of immune cell entry into the brain depends on context. In the case of viral infection, immune cell entry is required to clear the virus. But in autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, their entry is associated with damage so we need to find ways to keep them out," said Klein.
The stairway is located on the tissue side of the microvasculature, tiny vessels that carry blood into the central nervous system. The steps are made of a molecule called CXCL12 that localizes immune cells, acting like stairs that slow them down so that they can be evaluated to determine if they are allowed to enter the brain.
Klein's lab previously discovered that the blood vessel cells of the microvasculature display copies of this molecule on their surfaces.
Klein also found that MS causes CXCL12 to be pulled inside blood vessel cells in humans and mice, removing the stairway's steps and the checkpoints they provide.
In the new paper, she showed that blocking the internalization of the molecule prevented immune cells from getting into the brain and doing harm.
Work by another lab called Klein's attention to CXCR7, a receptor that binds to CXCL12. She showed that the receptor is made by the same cells in the microvasculature that display CXCL12. They watched the receptor take copies of CXCL12 and dump them in the cells' lysosomes, pockets for breakdown and recycling of molecules the cell no longer needs.
Klein contacted researchers at ChemoCentryx, who were developing a blocker of the CXCR7 receptor as a cancer treatment. When they gave it to the mouse model of MS, immune cells stopped at the meninges.
The findings have been published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. (ANI)
SEARCH
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine have managed to block the development of multiple sclerosis-like symptoms using a mouse model of the disease.
When scientists gave mice a drug that suppressed the activity of a key molecule, immune cells lined up at the boundaries of the spine instead of going in. Scientists have blocked harmful immune cells from entering the brain in mice with a condition similar to multiple sclerosis (MS).
It is important because MS is apparently caused by misdirected immune cells that enter the brain and damage myelin-an insulating material on the branches of neurons that conduct nerve impulses, said researchers.
"The results were so dramatic that we ended up producing early evidence that this compound might be helpful as a drug for MS. The harmful immune cells were unable to gain access to the brain tissue, and the mice that received the highest dosage were protected from disease," said Robyn Klein.
Klein and her colleagues discovered a chemical stairway that immune cells have to climb down to enter the brain. Immune cells that exit the blood remain along the vessels on the tissue side, climbing down from the meninges into the brain where they can then cross additional barriers and attack myelin on the branches of neurons.
"The effect of immune cell entry into the brain depends on context. In the case of viral infection, immune cell entry is required to clear the virus. But in autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, their entry is associated with damage so we need to find ways to keep them out," said Klein.
The stairway is located on the tissue side of the microvasculature, tiny vessels that carry blood into the central nervous system. The steps are made of a molecule called CXCL12 that localizes immune cells, acting like stairs that slow them down so that they can be evaluated to determine if they are allowed to enter the brain.
Klein's lab previously discovered that the blood vessel cells of the microvasculature display copies of this molecule on their surfaces.
Klein also found that MS causes CXCL12 to be pulled inside blood vessel cells in humans and mice, removing the stairway's steps and the checkpoints they provide.
In the new paper, she showed that blocking the internalization of the molecule prevented immune cells from getting into the brain and doing harm.
Work by another lab called Klein's attention to CXCR7, a receptor that binds to CXCL12. She showed that the receptor is made by the same cells in the microvasculature that display CXCL12. They watched the receptor take copies of CXCL12 and dump them in the cells' lysosomes, pockets for breakdown and recycling of molecules the cell no longer needs.
Klein contacted researchers at ChemoCentryx, who were developing a blocker of the CXCR7 receptor as a cancer treatment. When they gave it to the mouse model of MS, immune cells stopped at the meninges.
The findings have been published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. (ANI)
SEARCH
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