MS therapy trials have Winnipeg doctor 'very excited'

A new large-scale trial is being conducted at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre to test the effectiveness and safety of a stem cell treatment that could relieve symptoms in patients suffering from multiple sclerosis.

The treatment involves mesenchymalstem cells, which are not the commonly-known cells thatbuild upthe immune system,but instead mesenchymalstem cellsproduce other tissues likecartilage, bone, potentially even nerve cells.

Dr. James Marriott,theprincipal investigator for the trial at the Health Sciences Centre,says the mesenchymal cellsseem to be able to influence immune system in such a way that they are able to reduce the sideeffects of MS.

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Marriott said that researchers have seenstrong signals from animal testing that these cells are important for repairing tissue damage which can relieve MS symptoms.

"That is to some extentthe holy grail. If we see some signal of that we are going to be very happy with the trial," Marriott said.

This trial is thefirst large-scaletrial for MS treatment with this type of stem cells. There are 20 patients in Winnipeg, with an additional 20 in Ottawa, with a total of 160 around the globe, with the main partners for the research being located in Europe.

The primary goal of the trial is to confirm thesafety of the treatment, with researchers monitoring how the patients are feeling and watching how their MRI scans change over time.

This treatment, unlike typical stem cell treatment,does not require chemotherapy or radiation before stem cells are administeredMarriott toldCBC'sInformation Radio.

"We all need to be cautiously optimistic. With a therapy like this, which is a very cutting-edge trial, it's very new, we hope we're going to see what we want to see and what the people affected by MS themselves certainly want to see, but we need to be cautious with anything like this because we may not get the answers that we're looking for."

Marriott admittedhe is "very excited" about the potential of this new trial.

Dr. James Marriott will be speaking Wednesday night at the MS Research Reception at the Viscount Gort hotel between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. for MS Awareness Month.