February 23, 2017.
According to a study conducted by a team of researchers from Imperial College London, United Kingdom, immunosuppressive therapy has proven to be effective in the fight against multiple sclerosis.
A therapy that destroys pathogenic cells
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. To date, there is no treatment to treat this disease, but drug solutions make it possible to alleviate the symptoms relatively effectively and thus slow the progression of the disease. According to a recent British study, it seems that immunosuppressive therapy is very effective in the area.
This therapy destroys the cells of the body that have become pathogenic and resets the immune system. According to this work, published in the medical journal JAMA Neurology, this treatment would allow 7 out of 10 patients to be in remission five years after the start of therapy. It would also stop the symptoms of the disease.
Therapy that is not without danger
How does this therapy work? First, the researchers take blood stem cells from the patient and secondly, they will be transplanted to rebuild his immune system. A new experiment was carried out on new patients and here again, immunosuppressive therapy has proved its effectiveness, since in 46% of participants, the disease was stopped for at least 5 years.
But this therapy remains very aggressive, since out of the 280 patients, 8 deaths were to be deplored. These results are encouraging, the researchers say, but more research needs to be done to prevent these deaths. ” The results of this study are encouraging, as they confirm those already carried out », Rejoiced Professor Paolo A. Muraro, who took part in the work. ” But we need to make progress on the risk of death during transplantation “.
Marine Rondot
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