Stem Cell Therapy vs. Multiple Sclerosis

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Stem Cell Therapy vs. Multiple Sclerosis

Cleveland Clinic neuroscientists get grant to develop adult stem cell

therapy for multiple sclerosis.

http://www.clevelandclinic.org/newsletter/story.asp?id=2267 & type=Home%

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http://tinyurl.com/6sfwy

The Department of Neurosciences at The Cleveland Clinic has received

an $825,000 grant from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to

further research in the area of stem cell biology as it relates to

multiple sclerosis (MS), a debilitating disease of the central nervous

system.

Bruce Trapp, Ph.D., chairman of the Department of Neurosciences at the

Clinic and the grant's recipient, will lead a collaborative research

effort to develop a small molecule therapy that uses adult stem cells

to regenerate oligodendrocytes, the brain cells that are attacked in

MS patients.

" What makes this grant so exciting is that it brings together two

areas of research, stem cell biology and MS, that are now

well-established at the Clinic, " Dr. Trapp said. " This award is a

complement to the extensive research in the Department of

Neurosciences as it pertains to MS. "

Oligodendrocytes make myelin, the protective layer and insulation

surrounding neurons in the brain. In MS patients, the death of

oligodendrocytes results in the loss of myelin, which causes brain

lesions to surface. The small molecule therapy under development at

The Cleveland Clinic is designed to prompt adult stem cells to make

new oligodendrocytes. This, in turn, will create myelin to repair MS

lesions.

Co-investigators involved in the small molecule therapy research are

Macklin, Ph.D., of The Cleveland Clinic's Department of

Neuroscience; Andrei Gudkov, Ph.D., chairman of the Clinic's

Department of Molecular Biology; and , Ph.D., of the Case

Western Reserve University Department of Neurosciences.

The grant from the Multiple Sclerosis Society will be awarded over

five years starting in April.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is thought to be an autoimmune disease in

which the body's own immune system mistakenly attacks normal tissues

in central nervous system. In MS, these attacks are aimed at myelin.

The central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord,

is made up of nerves that act as the body's control center .Each nerve

has a fatty covering of myelin that serves as insulation, which helps

in the transmission of nerve impulses (messages) between the brain and

body. Once myelin has been damaged, normal nerve function is

disturbed, and a number of symptoms can be experienced.

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