A glimmer of hope; Breakthrough in stem cell research could help ...
St. Catharines Standard - St. Catharines,Ontario,Canada
Robyn Garner, executive director of the MS society's Niagara chapter, says many people with multiple sclerosis follow stem cell research closely, ...
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A glimmer of hope; Breakthrough in stem cell research could help scientists treat people with MS

KATIE DeROSA
Local News - Saturday, August 11, 2007 @ 01:00

Janet Driessen gestures with enthusiasm as she talks about her disease, stopping only to calm her hyperactive aid dog, Detour, as he bounds around the room.

Her face is warm, youthful, healthy looking. Every few minutes, she reaches under her knees and tugs at her legs, repositioning one at a time the way they sit below the rest of her body.

Her thin legs look heavy as she strains to move them even slightly. Her feet sit under a heating blanket, cold and numb.

Inside her body, the protective covering of the brain and spinal cord, called the myelin, is being attacked, causing piercing spasticity in her legs, partial vision loss and dizziness.

Driessen has multiple sclerosis.

Since her diagnosis 14 years ago, the 49-year-old Grimsby woman has watched and felt the disease progress.

First, it was constant fatigue.

Five years ago, it was having to use two canes to get around.

But after a severe MS attack four years ago, she has only the ability to slowly drag her feet across the room with the help of a walker. Outside her home, she uses a motorized scooter.

"I have not slept a night through since," she says.

The clenching muscle spasms in her legs keep her awake.

But Driessen says there is hope. She sees exciting leaps forward in medical research.

Ongoing research in stem cell therapies, she says, holds some of the most promising answers to what causes MS, how to treat it, and even prevent it.

Scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton made a breakthrough discovery last month that brings researchers closer to understanding how embryonic stem (ES) cells co-exist with the other cells around them.

Looking at cells in Petri dishes, scientists discovered stem cells feed off niche cells protecting them, and the parent cell actually gives rise to its protectors.

This will help researchers find out which group of cells to target when transplanting blood or neuron cells.

This isn't news to Driessen. She's well aware of where stem cell research stands and how it could help her in the future.
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Driessen spends a lot of her time surfing the Internet, learning as much as possible about what's happening with stem cell research and the benefits it holds for the more than 50,000 Canadians with MS.

"Everything that you learn about them, like, for instance, the fact that stem cells are influenced by other stem cells around them, that helps us," she says. "Stem cells have potential, not only for us to better understand the disease, but also to bring in therapies as well."

* * *

The McMaster study, conducted out of the Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute, used embryonic stem cells, which have long been touted as the white knights of regenerative medicine.

The cells, derived from the inner cell mass of an early-stage embryo, can transform into any specialized cells found in the human body, catapulting their potential for repairing damaged cells, be it brain cells or spinal cells, both of which are damaged in MS patients.

"The ES cells would be of choice (for successful research) because there is no signature," Driessen says.

Researchers say embryonic stem cells hold the key to curing spinal cord injury and degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

But the possible destruction of human embryos for the purpose of science comes with many ethical questions that have turned the issue into a polarizing and political debate.

For instance, where will scientists get the millions of cells needed to repair the damage inflicted on so many patients? Could we see an age where people reproduce simply to sell lucrative stem cells? Could human cloning be next?

Driessen points out just a few of the issues that fuel the fiery opposition to the experimental technology.

Stuart Wong, spokesman for the MS Society of Canada, says the society supports researchers' efforts with embryonic stem cells, but currently is not funding any embryonic stem cell projects.

"We're in favour of any research that's going to advance our cause," he says.

The society is the principal funder for two stem cell projects that use the body's own cells to stimulate repair.

It recently pledged an additional $2.4 million to the $4-million clinical trial launched in 2000 by MS specialists Dr. Mark Freedman and Dr. Harry Atkins of the Ottawa Health Research Institute.

The trials use bone marrow stem cells from affected human patients to wipe out and replace the diseased immune system.

Bone marrow stem cells may be able to take on the form of any stem cell in the body, the invaluable characteristic purported of embryonic stem cells, Freedman says.

"The big debate is should we be going for ES cell transplants with all its nuances and the politically provocative nonsense that goes with it or can we stick with bone marrow stem cells and get the same kinds of results?"

If the trials are successful, researchers could potentially reverse some symptoms of MS and begin to understand how to stop it in recently diagnosed patients.

"Ultimately, we would like to be able to reverse the (damage to) patients who are very disabled today," Freedman says.

He is optimistic that stem cell research holds significant improvements for the day-to-day maladies of MS patients, and he says they have cause to be optimistic as well.

"I think we're going to be able to do for MS patients what we've never been able to do before."

* * *

Robyn Garner, executive director of the MS society's Niagara chapter, says many people with multiple sclerosis follow stem cell research closely, hoping it will one day help them or their children.

"They pretty much stay on top of what's happening in the research field," she says.

Wong says he sees this interest in stem cell research from MS patients across Canada.

"Any information you have on something is going to give you a greater sense of comfort," Wong says. "The hope is that we can take the research from bench to bedside."

When talking about her hopes for what stem cell research will mean for MS patients, Driessen looks serious for a moment and nods her head. "It will happen, I think, in our lifetime.

"I may be myself a little far gone, but there's my son, what if he ends up with the disease?" she says, a photo of Nolan, 14, resting proudly on her mantel.

Driessen is not expecting an overnight cure that will see her miraculously spring from her wheelchair shouting, "I'm cured."

"I think what we can look to in the future as MSers is not a cure out of stem cell (research)," she says.

"I see it as a tool and perhaps the best tool for regeneration."

kderosa@stcatharinesstandard.ca

What are stem cells?

MS Society funding for stem cell research

Stem cells have the ability to continually reproduce themselves while giving rise to other more specialized types of cells. Stem cells play a critical role in developing and maintaining the human body.

Proponents say stem cells have the potential to revolutionize the treatment of degenerative diseases and major traumatic injuries.

Embryonic stem cells versus adult stem cells

Embryonic stem cells are said to be pluripotent, which means they are capable of taking the shape of any specialized cells found in the human body.

Adult stem cells are capable of regenerating only into their tissue of origin, so blood cells become blood cells, brain cells become brain cells.

Project: Determining whether transplanting bone marrow stem cells in patients can stop or repair multiple sclerosis.

Funding: $4 million over six years and a recent additional $2.5 million to continue the second phase of research.

Principal researchers: Dr. Harry Atkins and Dr. Mark Freedman of the Ottawa Health Research Institute.

Project: Trying to turn the body's own stem cells into myelin-producing cells that would mend the damage to the myelin (the protective cover for the brain and spinal cord) caused by MS.

Funding: $2.25 million over three years

Principal researchers: Dr. Jack Antel, McGill University, Dr. Samuel Weiss, University of Calgary, and Moses Rodriguez, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.

Source: MS Society of Canada
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=649533&catname=Local+News&classif=

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