Stem cell transplants give hope to Crohn’s sufferers
A CLINICAL trial has begun which will use stem cells to grow a new immune system for people with Crohn’s disease, a condition which causes inflammation in the digestive system, leading to chronic pain and extreme tiredness.
Chief investigator Professor James Lindsay, from Queen Mary University, of London, said: “We’re hoping that by resetting the patient’s immune system through a stem cell transplant, we might be able to radically alter the course of the disease. While it may not be a cure, it may allow some patients to finally respond to drugs which previously did not work.”
About 115,000 people in Britain suffer from Crohn’s and many fail to respond to current treatments.
The use of stem cell transplants to wipe out and replace patients’ immune systems has been found to be successful in treating multiple sclerosis and the new trial will investigate whether it could also reduce gut inflammation in Crohn’s.
For the procedure, patients have stem cells harvested from their blood and then chemotherapy is used to wipe out their faulty immune system.
When the stem cells are reintroduced back into the body, they develop into new cells which give the patient a fresh immune system. In theory, the new immune system will no longer fight the patient’s own gut.
The clinical trial is a follow up to the team’s 2015 trial which investigated a similar stem cell therapy but which was found to have serious side-effects, which led to the death of one participant. The follow-up trial will be using a lower dose of the treatment to minimise risks due to toxicity.
Helen Bartlett, a Crohn’s disease patient who had stem cell therapy in the original trial, said: “I’ve been in and out of hospital for the last 20 years, operation after operation, drug after drug, to try to beat this disease. It’s frustrating, it’s depressing.
“When offered the stem cell transplant, it was a complete no brainer. I cannot describe how much better I feel since the treatment. I still have problems and I’m always going to have problems, but I’m not in constant pain.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)