Category Archives: Cell Therapy

She credits an experimental stem cell treatment with giving her new hope for her health and her future -- a newfound hope that also caught attention of Republican Rep. Pete Olson.

"She is the face of the 21st Century Cures Act because of what she's gone through in her life," he said Tuesday.

"It became pretty clear to me that ... I (have) got to tell her story," he said. "That's why she's here: She's awesome."

Immediately after the House vote, Hughes said, Olson called her at home to invite her to be his guest of honor.

"I still cannot believe I will be in the same room as our President and lawmakers," she said before attending Trump's speech.

It took Crowley's father, John, to launch the New Jersey biotechnology company Amicus Therapeutics to identify a drug treatment that would save her life, Trump said.

"If we slash the restraints, not just at the FDA but across our Government, then we will be blessed with far more miracles like Megan," he said. "In fact, our children will grow up in a Nation of miracles."

Hughes spent most of her adolescence hospitalized, as she became so sick that she could barely walk and suffered immense pain. Her body was evaluated, treated and studied at the National Institutes of Health in collaboration with her doctors from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Yet relief came in 2014, when Hughes received a high-dose adult stem cell treatment that was not approved in the United States.

For the procedure, Hughes had her own healthy stem cells cultured at the FDA-registered biotechnology company Celltex Therapeutics in Houston. Then she traveled to Cancun, Mexico, to have the cells infused back into her body.

Each infusion involved about 200 million stem cells, and Hughes received some 22 infusions over almost two years. The cells could help normalize her immune system, which was overactive due to her autoimmune disease.

Before the stem cell therapy, Hughes said, she was taking 23 medications a day. Now, she is on eight medications at lower doses.

"If not for the help of high-dose autologous mesenchymal stem cell therapy, I would not be here today," Hughes said at the hearing.

"I was running out of time, but I was willing to put my life at risk to get on an airplane. My quality of life had become so dismal, even one small improvement from my own stem cells would have been enough for me," she said in her speech. "What happened in the days, weeks and years following my first infusion has changed my outlook. It's hard to believe, in my sick body, I had a wealth of healthy adult stem cells with the ability to so significantly improve my quality of life."

"My hope is that our new President will spend time looking at how to help all Americans have access to new therapies like the one I had," she said.

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Stem cell treatment changed the life of one guest at Trump's speech ... - CNN

In this May 2016 photo provided by Kite Pharma, cell therapy specialists at the companys manufacturing facility in El Segundo, Calif., prepare blood cells from a patient to be engineered in the lab to fight cancer. The experimental gene therapy, called CAR-T cell, turns a patients own blood cells into specialized cancer killers.

Kite Pharma via AP

An experimental gene therapy that turns a patients own blood cells into cancer killers worked in a major study, with more than one-third of very sick lymphoma patients showing no sign of disease six months after a single treatment, its maker said Tuesday. In all, 82 percent of patients had their cancer shrink at least by half at some point in the study. Its sponsor, California-based Kite Pharma, is racing Novartis AG to become the first to win approval of the treatment, called CAR-T cell therapy, in the U.S. It could become the nations first approved gene therapy. A hopeful sign: the number in complete remission at six months 36 percent is barely changed from partial results released after three months, suggesting this one-time treatment might give lasting benefits for those who do respond well.

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This seems extraordinary ... extremely encouraging, said one independent expert, Dr. Roy Herbst, cancer medicines chief at the Yale Cancer Center. The worry has been how long Kites treatment would last and its side effects, which he said seem manageable in the study. Follow-up beyond six months is still needed to see if the benefit wanes, Herbst said, but added, this certainly is something I would want to have available. The therapy is not without risk. Three of the 101 patients in the study died of causes unrelated to worsening of their cancer, and two of those deaths were deemed due to the treatment. It was developed at the governments National Cancer Institute and then licensed to Kite. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society helped sponsor the study. Results were released by the company and have not been published or reviewed by other experts. Full results will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research conference in April. The company plans to seek approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the end of March and in Europe later this year. The treatment involves filtering a patients blood to remove key immune system soldiers called T-cells, altering them in the lab to contain a gene that targets cancer, and giving them back intravenously. Doctors call it a living drug permanently altered cells that multiply in the body into an army to fight the disease. Patients in the study had one of three types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer, and had failed all other treatments. Median survival for such patients has been about six months. Kite study patients seem to be living longer, but median survival isnt yet known. With nearly nine months of follow-up, more than half are still alive. Six months after treatment, 41 percent still had a partial response (cancer shrunk at least in half) and 36 percent were in complete remission (no sign of disease).

These scans show a 62-year-old man with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, at left in December 2015, and three months after treatment with Kite Pharmas experimental CAR-T cell therapy at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The scans are from a presentation by Drs. Fred Locke and Sattva Neelapu, provided by the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Kite.

ASBMT/Kite Pharma via AP

The numbers are fantastic, said Dr. Fred Locke, a blood cancer expert at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa who co-led the study and has been a paid adviser to Kite. These are heavily treated patients who have no other options.

One of his patients, 43-year-old Dimas Padilla of Orlando, was driving when he got a call saying his cancer was worsening, chemotherapy was no longer working, and there was no match to enable a second try at a stem cell transplant. I actually needed to park ... I was thinking how am I going to tell this to my mother, my wife, my children, he said. But after CAR-T therapy last August, he saw his tumors shrink like ice cubes and is now in complete remission. They were able to save my life, Padilla said. Of the study participants, 13 percent developed a dangerous condition where the immune system overreacts in fighting the cancer, but that rate is lower than in some other tests of CAR-T therapy. The rate fell during the study as doctors got better at detecting and treating it sooner. Roughly a third of patients developed anemia or other blood-count-related problems, which Locke said were easily treated. And 28 percent had neurological problems such as sleepiness, confusion, tremor or difficulty speaking, but these typically lasted just a few days, Locke said. Its a safe treatment, certainly a lot safer than having progressive lymphoma, and comparable to combination chemotherapy in terms of side effects, said the cancer institutes Dr. Steven Rosenberg, who had no role in Kites study. The first lymphoma patient Rosenberg treated this way, a Florida man, is still in remission seven years later. There were no cases of swelling and fluid in the brain in this or any other study testing Kites treatment, company officials said. That contrasts with Juno Therapeutics, which has had a CAR-T study put on hold twice after five patient deaths due to this problem. Company officials would not say what the treatment might cost, but other types of immune system therapies have been very expensive. Its also being tested for some other types of blood cancer.

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Gene therapy "seems extraordinary" at fighting blood cancer in study, experts say - CBS News

KARAIKAL: Recent advancements in stem cells research have given hope for successfully treating diabetic heart disease (DHD), renowned New Zealand-based researcher in cardiovascular diseases Dr Rajesh Katare said today.

DHD affected the muscular tissues of the heart leading to complications and it had been demonstrated that resident stem cells of myocardium can be stimulated to repair and replace e degenerated cardiac myocytes resulting in a novel therapeutic effect and ultimately cardiac regeneration, he said.

Katare, Director of Cardiovascular Research Division in the University of Otago, New Zealand, was delivering the keynote address at the continuing medical education programme on "Role of Micro-RNAs and stem cells in cardiac regeneration in diabetic heart disease" at the Karaikal campus of premier health institute JIPMER.

Presenting clinical evidences, Katare said stem cell therapy certainly presented a new hope for successfully treating DHD.

Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education (JIPMER) Director Dr Subash Chandra Parija pointed out that it was the first such programme on the role of stem cells in cardiac regeneration in the whole of the country.

He said as diabetes was highly prevalent in the country, providing treatment for DHD had become a big challenge. Patients suffering from the condition have to undergo lifelong treatment and medications. "In this backdrop, advancements in stem cell therapy assume significance," he said.

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Stem cell therapy can help treat diabetic heart disease - The ... - Economic Times

Clinical Advisor

Stem cell therapy may be effective for multiple sclerosis Clinical Advisor Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and treated with autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) have approximately a 50% chance of remaining free from neurologic progression for 5 years after transplant, according to a study published ... and more »

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Stem cell therapy may be effective for multiple sclerosis - Clinical Advisor

Call me a creature of habit, or just plain boring, but Ive been wearing my hair long, blonde, straight, and side-parted for more than 15 years. The only thing thats really changed is how much of it I have left. Whether the result of bleach, blowouts, stress, hormones, genetics, or all of the above, Ive been shedding like a cheap angora sweater since the age of 30. And, to make matters worse, the hair I do have is fine, fragile, and flyaway.

It wasnt always so. Flipping through old photo albums, I found evidence not only of my natural color (a long-forgotten brown) but also of the graphic, blunt bob I sported in my early 20s. I had oodles of hair back then and would smooth it to my head with pomade and push it behind my earsmuch like Guido Palau did on some of the models in Pradas spring runway show, I noted smugly.

Efforts in the ensuing years to save my ever-sparser strands have been all but futile. You name it, Ive tried it: platelet-rich plasma (PRP), treatments in which your own blood is spun down to platelets and injected into your scalp; mesotherapy (painful vitamin shots, also in the scalp); oral supplements; acupuncture; massage; herbal remedies; and high-tech hair products. Ive even resorted to wearing a silly-looking helmet that bathed my head in low-level laser light and was said to stimulate failing follicles. At this point, I would soak my mane in mares milk under the glow of a waxing supermoon if I thought it would help.

Since hair regeneration is one of the cosmetics-research worlds holiest grails (read: potential multibillion-dollar industry), Ive always hoped that a bona fide breakthrough was around the corner, and prayed it would arrive well ahead of my dotage. As it turns out, it might actually be a five-hour flight from New Yorkand around $10,000away.

It was the celebrity hairstylist Sally Hershberger who whispered the name Roberta F. Shapiro into my ear. You have to call her, she said. She is on to something, and it could be big. Shapiro, a well-respected Manhattan pain-management specialist, treats mostly chronic and acute musculoskeletal and myofascial conditions, like disc disease and degeneration, pinched nerves, meniscal tears, and postLyme disease pain syndromes. Her patient list reads like a whos who of the citys power (and pain-afflicted) elite, and her practice is so busy, she could barely find time to speak with me. According to Shapiro, a possible cure for hair loss was never on her agenda.

But thats exactly what she thinks she may have stumbled upon in the course of her work with stem cell therapy. About eight years ago, she started noticing a commonality among many of her patientsevidence of autoimmune disease with inflammatory components. Frustrated that she was merely palliating their discomfort and not addressing the underlying problems, Shapiro began to look beyond traditional treatments and drug protocols to the potential healing and regenerative benefits of stem cellsspecifically, umbilical cordderived mesenchymal stem cells, which, despite being different from the controversial embryonic stem cells, are used in the U.S. only for research purposes. After extensive vetting, she began bringing patients to the Stem Cell Institute, in Panama City, Panama, which she considers the most sophisticated, safe, and aboveboard facility of its kind. Its not a spa, or a feel-good, instant-fix kind of place, nor is it one of those bogus medical-tourism spots, she says. Lori Kanter Tritsch, a 55-year-old New York architect (and the longtime partner of Este Lauder Executive Chairman William Lauder) is a believer. She accompanied Shapiro to Panama for relief from what had become debilitating neck pain caused by disc bulges and stenosis from arthritis, and agreed to participate in this story only because she believes in the importance of a wider conversation about stem cells. If it works for hair rejuvenation, or other cosmetic purposes, great, but that was not at all my primary goal in having the treatment, Kanter Tritsch said.

While at the Stem Cell Institute, Kanter Tritsch had around 100 million stem cells administered intravenously (a five-minute process) and six intramuscular injections of umbilical cord stem cellderived growth factor (not to be confused with growth hormone, which has been linked to cancer). In the next three months, she experienced increased mobility in her neck, was able to walk better, and could sleep through the night. She also lost a substantial amount of weight (possibly due to the anti-inflammatory effect of the stem cells), and her skin looked great. Not to mention, her previously thinning hair nearly doubled in volume.

As Shapiro explains it, the process of hair loss is twofold. The first factor is decreased blood supply to hair follicles, or ischemia, which causes a slow decrease in their function. This can come from aging, genetics, or autoimmune disease. The second is inflammation. One of the reasons I think mesenchymal stem cells are working to regenerate hair is that stem cell infiltration causes angiogenesis, which is a fancy name for regrowing blood vessels, or in this case, revascularizing the hair follicles, Shapiro notes. Beyond that, she says, the cells have a very strong anti-inflammatory effect.

For clinical studies shes conducting in Panama, Shapiro will employ her proprietary technique of microfracturing, or injecting the stem cells directly into the scalp. She thinks this unique delivery method will set her procedure apart. But, she cautions, this is a growing science, and we are only at the very beginning. PRP is like bathwater compared with amniotic- or placenta-derived growth factor, or better yet, umbilical cordderived stem cells.

Realizing that not everyone has the money or inclination to fly to Panama for a treatment that might not live up to their expectations, Hershberger and Shapiro are in the process of developing Platinum Clinical, a line of hair products containing growth factor harvested from amniotic fluid and placenta. (Shapiro stresses that these are donated remnants of a live birth that would otherwise be discarded.) The products will be available later this year at Hershbergers salons.

With follicular salvation potentially within reach, I wondered if it might be time to revisit the blunt bob of my youth. I call Palau, and inquire about that sleek 1920s do he created for Prada. Fine hair can actually work better for a style like this, he says. In fact, designers often prefer models with fine hair, so the hairstyle doesnt overpower the clothing. Then he confides, Sometimes, if a girl has too much hair, we secretly braid it away. Say what? I know, its the exact opposite of what women want in the real world. But models are starting to realize that fine hair can be an asset. Look, at some point you have to embrace what you have and work with it. Wise words, perhaps, and proof that, like pretty much everything else, thick hair is wasted on the young.

From the Minimalist to the Bold, the 5 Best Hair Trends of New York Fashion Week

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Thanks to Stem Cell Therapy, Thinning Hair May Be a Thing of the ... - W Magazine

Back to Browse Journals Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment Volume 13

Gautam Rao, Sherwin Mashkouri, David Aum, Paul Marcet, Cesar V Borlongan

Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, Tampa, FL, USA

Abstract: Epilepsy is a debilitating disease that impacts millions of people worldwide. While unprovoked seizures characterize its cardinal symptom, an important aspect of epilepsy that remains to be addressed is the neuropsychiatric component. It has been documented for millennia in paintings and literature that those with epilepsy can suffer from bouts of aggression, depression, and other psychiatric ailments. Current treatments for epilepsy include the use of antiepileptic drugs and surgical resection. Antiepileptic drugs reduce the overall firing of the brain to mitigate the rate of seizure occurrence. Surgery aims to remove a portion of the brain that is suspected to be the source of aberrant firing that leads to seizures. Both options treat the seizure-generating neurological aspect of epilepsy, but fail to directly address the neuropsychiatric components. A promising new treatment for epilepsy is the use of stem cells to treat both the biological and psychiatric components. Stem cell therapy has been shown efficacious in treating experimental models of neurological disorders, including Parkinsons disease, and neuropsychiatric diseases, such as depression. Additional research is necessary to see if stem cells can treat both neurological and neuropsychiatric aspects of epilepsy. Currently, there is no animal model that recapitulates all the clinical hallmarks of epilepsy. This could be due to difficulty in characterizing the neuropsychiatric component of the disease. In advancing stem cell therapy for treating epilepsy, experimental testing of the safety and efficacy of allogeneic and autologous transplantation will require the optimization of cell dosage, delivery, and timing of transplantation in a clinically relevant model of epilepsy with both neurological and neuropsychiatric symptoms of the disease as the primary outcome measures.

Keywords: epilepsy, neuropsychiatric, stem cells, autologous

This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License. By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.

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CHICAGO. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis in the U.S., affecting nearly 27 million adults. It is currently an incurable disease in which the joints deteriorate. Now, a therapy that has been used in eye surgery and to heal the skin of burn victims is being used for the first time in knees. This new form of treatment involves stem cells from amniotic fluid.

As a professional photographer, climbing up step ladders and walking down stairs are part of the daily grind for 65-year-old Linda Schwartz.

"There's constant activity; you're moving the whole time, really," Schwartz told Ivanhoe.

But the pain of osteoarthritis in both of her knees was making all that activity a little harder.

Schwartz detailed, "I tried cortisone shots. I had something called Euflexxa. I was sent to physical therapy twice. I mean, I did try acupuncture in my knees. But it didn't really seem to make a difference."

Adam Yanke, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, explained, "It's like the rubber on the tire. So as you start to lose the rubber in your tire and the rim hits the road, that's what happens when you have bone on bone arthritis and you've lost all the cartilage in your knee."

Dr. Yanke enrolled Schwartz in an experimental new therapy that involved injecting amniotic fluid that contained stem cells donated by healthy mothers into the knees of osteoarthritis patients.

"Between the two of those they're a potent anti-inflammatory and they also have growth factors that help promote healing or healthy growth of tissue," said Dr. Yanke.

It was by far the most effective pain treatment that Schwartz has tried. Unlike cortisone shots, there are no side effects. The pain relief has so far lasted up to a year.

"It was a very gradual feeling of it's a little bit better, it's a little bit better, and then realizing, wow, it's really pretty good," said Schwartz.

The one drawback is this therapy is not for patients whose arthritis is so bad it requires knee replacement surgery. Even though it's still in the experimental stage, Dr. Yanke offers the stem cell treatment to his patients. But at a cost of $2,200 a shot, it is not yet covered by insurance.

Contributors to this news report include: Cyndy McGrath, Supervising Producer; Jessica Sanchez, Field Producer; Milvionne Chery, Assistant Producer; Roque Correa, Editor.

MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS

RESEARCH SUMMARY

TOPIC: Stem Cell Therapy for Osteoarthritis

REPORT: MB #4213

BACKGROUND: Osteoarthritis, also known as degenerative joint disease or degenerative arthritis, is the most chronic condition in the joints, affecting 27 million Americans. This disease is an incurable one in which the tissue and bone in the joints deteriorate. Because the cartilage is a cushion between the bones, when this is lost a person can experience considerable pain, swelling and problems when moving the joint. This condition can affect people of any age, but it is more common in people over the age of 65. Some common risk factors include:

* Age

* Obesity

* Previous joint injury

* Overuse of the joint

* Weak thigh muscles

* Genetics

(Source: http://www.arthritis.org/about-arthritis/types/osteoarthritis/what-is-osteoarthritis.php)

TREATMENTS: Although there is no cure for osteoarthritis, there are several treatments that exist to treat it. Each treatment depends on the patient and the severity of the disease, but all focus on managing pain, stiffness and swelling; as well as joint mobility and flexibility. Some of these treatments are:

* Medications, like analgesics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, pills, cream and lotions

* Physical and occupational therapies

* Surgery

* Natural and alternative therapies like nutritional supplements, acupuncture, massages, physical activities, and weight management

(Source: http://www.arthritis.org/about-arthritis/types/osteoarthritis/treatment.php)

STEM CELL THERAPY: Stem cell therapy consists of a membrane product that also has amniotic fluid in it. They are usually used in eye surgery and to heal the skin of burned victims but now they're being used to treat osteoarthritis in an experimental therapy. The main goal of the trial is to demonstrate this is an adequate therapy for relieving inflammation in the joints. The therapy involves injecting amniotic fluid that contains stem cells donated by healthy mother into the knees of patients. Dr. Adam Yanke says it's too soon to tell if the stem cell therapy will actually help with growing back healthy tissue in order to avoid surgery, or if it will simply delay the process. Furthermore, the therapy can't be given to patients suffering from chronic arthritis and are in need of knee replacement surgery. Nevertheless, the treatment helps with pain relief, movement and there are no reported side effects.

(Source: Adam Yanke)

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS REPORT, PLEASE CONTACT:

Deb Song

Media Relations

Deb_song@rush.edu

If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Marjorie Bekaert Thomas at mthomas@ivanhoe.com

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HealthWatch: Stem Cell Therapy for Osteoarthritis - WeAreGreenBay.com

TxCell has raised 11m ($11.6m) through a share issue which it will use to fund first-in-man study of one of its cell therapy candidates.

The shares were bought by new backers like Auriga Ventures II and ING Luxembourg a S.A. as well as existing TxCell investors Innobio FCPR andBpifrance Participation Large Venture.

CEO Stephane Boissel told us "TxCell hasrealigned its strategy, being the first to move into the Car-Treg field in auto-immune diseases. Thefinance will help TxCell to get through to a first IND approval to initiate a first-in-man study with a CAR-Treg candidate, which is expected by the end of 2018.

He added that: "This study will be a world first. It most likely would be in solid organ transplantation, to treat or prevent chronic rejection.

TxCell has four CAR-Treg candidates in his pipeline. Three are for the treatment of diseases, specifically lupus nephritis, bullous pemphigoid and multiple sclerosis. The fourth is designed to prevent graft-versus-host disease after transplantation.

All four were developed using the firms ENTrIA platform which uses CARs to direct antigen-specific regulatory cells (Ag-Tregs) to target autoimmune inflammatory diseases.

All four are listed as being in early phase development on TxCells website.

Two of the therapies, the GvHD treatment ENTX#SOT and the lupus candidate ENTX#LN are the subject of preclinical research accords signed last year.

ENTX#BP, which is being developed as a treatment for the rare skin blistering disease bullous pemphigoid, is also the focus of a preclinical research partnership.

However, when TxCell announced the deal with the Lubeck Institute of Experimental Dermatology (LIED) in June it said the aim was to conduct non-clinical pharmacology studies with CAR-Treg cells to prepare for a first-in-man study.

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TxCell raises cash for first-in-man CAR-Treg cell therapy study - BioPharma-Reporter.com

Posted on Feb. 23, 2017, 6 a.m. in Stem Cell Research Immune System Stem Cell

Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation halted progression of Multiple Sclerosis for 5 years in 46% of patients.

Recent research indicates that the transplant of autologous hematopoietic stem cells (AHSCT) is an excellent treatment for multiple sclerosis. It has been determined that the procedure stops disease progression for half a decade in nearly 50 percent of multiple sclerosis patients.

About the Study

The study was spearheaded by Dr. Paolo Muraro from the Imperial College London's Department of Medicine. Dr. Muraro and his colleagues revealed their findings through JAMA Neurology. These results were released on the heels of a separate study that found the success of a similar treatment in patients suffering from relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Dr. Muraro and his research team are quick to point out that additional trials are necessary to gauge the efficacy and safety of AHSCT. It is important to note that some patients perished within the first 100 days of treatment.

About AHSCT

AHSCT involves the harvesting of a patient's own stem cells. The patient is subjected to a powerful dose of chemotherapy to destroy any diseased cells. The next step is the return of harvested stem cells to the patient's blood. The goal is to restart the production of normal blood cells.

In layman's terms, AHSCT is best understood as a resetting of the body's immune system. Though it was already known that this style of treatment resets the immune system and poses certain risks, the length of its benefits was not fully understood. We now have a better picture of these benefits. AHSCT Results

The research team studied data from over two dozen treatment centers in 13 countries. They pinpointed 281 patients who suffered from multiple sclerosis and underwent AHSCT from 1995 to 2006. Exactly 78 percent of these patients had a progressive form of multiple sclerosis. The team made use of the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) to analyze patients' survival after five years of treatment as well as improvements in their multiple sclerosis symptoms. A whopping 46 percent of these patients enjoyed zero disease progression in the five years following treatment. Those with RRMS, characterized by flare-ups (inflammatory attacks) and periods of remission enjoyed the optimal outcomes.

An amazing 73 percent of these patients did not endure worsening of symptoms in the 5 years following AHSCT. Some patients also experienced minor improvements in their multiple sclerosis symptoms following AHSCT. Those with progressive multiple sclerosis enjoyed a rise in EDSS score by 0.14 in the year after treatment. Those with RRMS experienced an EDSS score increase of 0.76. Those of a younger age, minimal immunotherapies before AHSCT and a comparably lower EDSS score also displayed improved outcomes with AHSCT. Treatment Risk

The findings described above clearly show promise for the AHSCT use in individuals who suffer from multiple sclerosis. The research team would like to make it perfectly clear that some patients died in the 100 days following AHSCT. Exactly eight patients perished in this time period. It is assumed that the deaths were related to treatment. AHSCT makes use of aggressive chemotherapy that significantly weakens the immune system and spikes one's risk for infection. Since multiple sclerosis is not a disease that is immediately life-threatening, the risk of death posed by AHSCT must be weighed by all multiple sclerosis patients.

What's next Dr. Muraro is adamant that a follow-up study must be performed that includes a group of multiple sclerosis patients who have not received AHSCT. It is clear that additional studies are required to accurately gauge the efficacy and safety of AHSCT. Ideally, a massive randomized controlled trial of AHSCT will be performed in the coming months.

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Stem Cell Therapy Halts Multiple Sclerosis - Anti Aging News

Humans have about 15,000 inner ear-hair cells, each one picking up sound vibrations, converting them to electric signals and sending them to the brain for processing.

Over time, loud noise, medications and old age combine to kill these cells and their microscopic hairs called stereocilia which leads to hearing loss. Unlike other animals, however, humans and mammals can't regrow them. But a group of scientists based in Boston say they've figured out a way to switch on the body's cellular factories and possibly reverse hearing loss.

"The biology is there, we just need to awaken it," said Jeffrey Karp, associate professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and an author on the new study appearing Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports. "For some reason there are brakes that we need to release for a short period of time to allow new hair cells to be produced."

RELATED: Can We Reverse Hearing Damage?

Karp and colleagues were able to regrow the hair cells by activating a stem cell in the cochlea called Lgr5 with a small molecule drug treatment. A similar stem cell is found in the human intestine and allows the body to regrow the exterior lining of the organ every five days.

The team also obtained a human cochlea from a patient who suffered from cancer and were able to regrow hair cells with their drug treatment.

"We don't want to provide false hope, but we are highly encouraged by this work. And our ability to produce bona fide functional hair cells is very compelling," Karp said.

The next step is taking the experimental data and starting a human clinical trial. Karp and Robert Langer of MIT are co-founders in a small startup firm, Frequency Therapeutics, that's working toward a phase I trial in the next 18 months, according to Karp.

A possible drug treatment for hearing loss could help the 360 million people worldwide who suffer from the condition.

RELATED: Why Does Loud Music Cause Hearing Loss?

"Their proposal is very novel and essentially by activating these supporting cells, a natural process will take over and a certain percentage would become hair cells capable of playing a role in the encoding of sound," said Nicolas Reed, an instructor in otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. "I don't see any obvious negative indications right now."

Hearing loss can lead to big problems as we age, including the onset of Alzheimer's disease, falls and social isolation, according to Larry Medwetsky, chairman of our Department of Hearing, Speech and Language Sciences at Gallaudet University.

"It is not a minor matter," Medwetsky said. "Hearing loss can affect you mentally and emotionally. If you can prevent or remediate it than you can also you can restore quality of life and avoid some of these issues."

WATCH: How Did Human Hearing Evolve?

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Stem Cell Therapy Could Reverse Hearing Loss - Seeker