An interesting study in the journal Immunology, Oct., 2013, looked at immune system T-cell response after HSCT treatment compared to patients treated with natalizumab (Tysabri). The upshot seems to be that HSCT resets the immune system to be like a normal, healthy individual, while Tysabri-treated patients maintain imbalanced/sick immune systems. This may explain why I continued to lose mobility during the two years I was on Tysabri. Though the drug seemed to slow the development of MS lesions, something was obviously still wrong with me.
Per the study summary: HSCT-treated patients had similar levels of Treg cells and of Th1 and Th17 cells as healthy subjects, whereas natalizumab-treated patients had lower frequencies of Treg cells and higher frequencies of Th1 and Th17 cells. My interpretation of this is that there are not enough regulator cells in the natalizumab-treated patients to prevent the attack cells from launching autoimmune assaults on the myelin that protects nerves in the central nervous system.
These cellular-level observations also seem to explain why so many (85%) of Dr. Burt's patients appear to go into complete MS remission after HSCT. Changed from the core of the bone marrow, the immune system becomes normal. With my HSCT completed, I look forward to further improvement, without MS drugs.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/
No comments:
Post a Comment