New Study Shows Short-Term Benefits of Stem Cell Therapy for MS Patients, But Long-Term Efficacy Remains Unclear

There have been several studies looking at how MS patients respond to stem cell transplantation, a method where patients are infused with healthy stem cells in hopes of resetting their immune system.

Past research has shown remyelinating and immunomodulatory functions representing a potential therapeutic option for MS patients.

Now, new research, published in Nature Scientific Reports on May 31, revealed that people with MS are more prone to experience a short-term reduction in disability and brain lesion volume after receiving stem cell therapy.

The study, conducted by faculty at Zagazig University in Zagazig, Egypt, was led by Asmaa Ahmed Nawar, and involved a meta-analysis of nine studies detailing randomized clinical trials.

From a literature search of 3,948 records, the research team looked at randomized control trials of stem cell therapy in MS patients in 422 patients collected from PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and Cochrane Library.

“We prepared this study following the PRISMA checklist and performed all the steps according to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions,” Nawar explained. “We included cross-over trials to increase the sample size of the analysis to get credible results, and these studies were included until the cross-over point to avoid the carry-over effect in such trials.”

From the data, it was determined that stem cell therapy significantly improved MS patients expanded disability status scale following two months, and reduced brain lesion volume during the first two months as well. Therefore, the team concluded stem cell therapy does improve the disability of MS patients and reduce their brain lesion volume. The research team further found that stem cell therapy was safe, with zero cases of mortality during the follow-up period.

An interesting finding was that those who received stem cell therapy showed clinical improvements for those patients who received their own hematopoietic stem cells as opposed to those who received mesenchymal stem cells, proving the value of the former.

Despite the positive findings of clinical improvement in the early months, the researchers discovered that after 12 months, there were no differences in disability between patients who underwent stem cell therapy and controls, or individuals with MS who received another treatment or a placebo.

Additionally, the authors noted that those who underwent stem cell therapy showed not significant improvement in motor function, hand dexterity or cognitive function.

Therefore, Nawar and his research team suggested further study of stem cell therapy in MS patients was important, noting in the paper that longer follow-up can help to detect the long-term effect on disease progression and determine any long-term safety concerns. The team also encourages the research of different types of stem cell therapy to better find those that result in optimal results.