“Latest Stem Cells News”

Currently stem cell research is only a hope and a strong one at that, and Obama was right to resume a promising line of research that could also be useful for multiple sclerosis. This was a statement made by 1986 Nobel Prize for medicine winner Rita Levi Montalcini who spoke yesterday morning at a conference sponsored by Italian MS Society (AISM), of which she was Honorary President for the First World Multiple Sclerosis Day.

“Embryonic stem cell research is only one of the paths we are taking, and although we are far away, we must never surrender. I am certain that one day we will be able to defeat this disease, which strikes mainly young individuals,” said Montalcini. To proceed, research “needs public investments. But at the same time, private investments are just as important”.

“Stem cell research is still at its beginnings, and it is only one possibility to find a treatment for muscular sclerosis,” said Gianvito Martino, of the Neuro-immunology unit at San Raffaele in Milan at the first World Multiple Sclerosis Day.
“We have placed too much importance and created too many expectations for stem cell research, which will not provide a definitive solution for this disease.” “This is an opportunity that cannot be missed out on”, added Martino. “We have observed that stem cells can prevent damage, but they do not repair damaged tissue. They cannot be used on people with the disease who have suffered significant injuries”.

Martino asked, “those with the disease and their families to not take trips to other countries in hopes that they will receive miracle stem cell treatments. The safety of these treatments has not yet been verified. We are certain that we will begin to see the damages that result from these treatments in these patients, including the presence of tumors.”

Among the various initiatives taking place for the event was the awarding of the Rita Levi Montalcini 2009 prize to Roberto Furlan for his research in the neuro-immunology and genetic therapy fields. Lori Schneider was also recognized at the event for being the first woman with multiple sclerosis to reach the top of Mount Everest where she planted the flag of the First World Multiple Sclerosis Day on Friday May 22.

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“Gianvito Martino, the head of the Neurosciences division at the Institute of San Raffaele in Milan in a speech at Multiple Sclerosis Week, which took place from May 23-31, warned against “trips of hope to clinics that promise effective treatments using stem cells”.

According to Martino, who coordinated a Consensus Conference on last Tuesday in London on the neurodegenerative disease, where the guidelines for pre-clinical studies and clinical treatments with stem cells were defined, “hundreds of Italian patients each year go on these trips due to cures that are promised. In the best-case scenario, these patients return in the same condition in which they departed, but with a little bit less money. However, there are also many cases of infections and tumors.”

These stem cell clinics are found in various countries all over the world, including China, Thailand, the Dominican Republic, Manila, and Barbados. “They assure 40%-50% effectiveness and that they are able to treat any type of problem, from baldness to Alzheimer’s as well as muscular sclerosis, but they do not say anything about the type and quality of stem cells that they use. They use the placebo effect to indicate very few positive outcomes, but in the end, no one knows what is responsible for the cures.” Martino thinks that in many cases patients are given water instead of stem cells, or cortisone in order to give a few days of perceived improvements and to feed the illusion.

PROTECTIVE EFFECT ON BRAIN BEING STUDIED- Stem cells could represent a new opportunity to treat diseases like multiple sclerosis. Soon they will be used in testing since they are the target of many different research teams in fighting this debilitating disease. Among these is a research team at the scientific university institute at San Raffaele in Milan led by Martino, which has been working for years to understand if it is possible to use stem cells to cure diseases that strike the central nervous system with a strong inflammatory reaction provoking progressive and irreversible destruction of nerve tissue with extremely serious results (muscular sclerosis).

Martino spoke about the state of the research today in Milan at a presentation for National Multiple Sclerosis Week, a disease that strikes mainly young individuals between the ages of 20 and 30 and women. During the meeting, the new campaign to raise funds for the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association (AISM) was presented. ‘Fastforworld’, a request to support AISM’s activities, is directed at private citizens and businesses to “speed up research efforts”. In an experiment conducted on mice, the scientists at San Raffaele observed “nerve stem cells protect the central nervous system from damage that is typical of multiple sclerosis, acting as powerful natural ‘pharmaceuticals’,” explained Martino.

It seems that these stem cells kill the blood cells that cause inflammation, saving the healthy cells present in the inflamed nerve tissue. Their role is basically a sort of natural anti-inflammatory. “The studies of the Neuroimmunology unit at San Raffaele,” continued Martino, “have demonstrated that brain stem cells, if manipulated in vitro before being injected in vivo intravenously or intracerebrally, are able to selectively reach areas of the brain and the bone marrow that have been damaged and are able to repair them by releasing soluble anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective factors.”

These studies, warned the expert, “have given positive results in laboratory animals, but there are still many unknowns and it is necessary to reduce risks and avoid that patients unknowingly become victims of uncontrolled experiments.” The turning point will be transferring the results obtained in the lab to human beings. San Raffaele should start on this long journey in the next few months. They will first have to demonstrate that these stem cells do not put the patient at any risk. Once their safety has been proven, a study on the efficiency of the therapy will begin.

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