Multiple sclerosis could soon succumb to a barrage of groundbreaking therapies, whose development will involve researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Headed by Mark Friedmann, former MNI researcher and present MS program director at the University of Ottawa, the program will involve first destroying the patient's own immune system. Bone marrow from a healthy donor will then be transplanted into the patient.
Bone marrow produces immune cells.
Normally, immune cells protect the body from foreign materials, such as disease-causing bacteria and viruses. When a person has MS, however, their immune cells attack the body's own tissues. By replacing the patient's existing, disease-mediating immune system with healthy bone marrow, the researchers are hoping to generate new immune cells which would no longer attack the body. For gene therapy to be a success, the mutated gene or genes causing MS first have to be located. Healthy copies of the gene could then be injected into the body using non-harmful viruses or even immune cells as transport vehicles.