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Multiple sclerosis is common but incurable. Therapies using patients’ own stem cells could have a major impact on this disease, and we are already beginning now to take these exciting treatments out of the laboratory and into early clinical trials in patients with MS.
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The great advantage of using individual patients’ own stem cells is that they will not be seen as ‘foreign’ by the body’s immune system – and overall they are by far the safest option for stem cell therapies. Additionally, of course, such an approach completely avoids the controversial use of embryos. We have therefore commenced early and cautious clinical trials using patients’ own bone marrow stem cells, treating six patients in this way. We hope, in the medium term future, providing this study confirms safety, to commence further larger trials. But such clinical studies, together with the ongoing laboratory work necessary for the trial, require substantial sums of money. We therefore welcome any donations: whatever their size, they will help us accelerate our efforts and work towards a time when stem cell therapies become more widely available for all patients with multiple sclerosis.