Stem Cell Therapy May Help Treat Patients with Severe Asthma Says Study
According to a study conducted by Dr Eva Mezey, of the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, mice that developed Asthma by being exposed to pollen were protected against attacks after the cells obtained from bone marrow were injected into them.
These particular stem cells are already used to suppress inflammatory response after bone marrow transplants in humans according to the report.
The researchers believe the bone marrow stem cells reduce inflammation in the airways, the immune system’s normal response to severe cases of asthma.
The researchers whose findings are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences say about 5,000 people a year die from asthma in the US alone with 100,000 fatalities throughout the world.
Treatments for severe cases are largely inadequate at resolving the sufferer’s conditions so new ones are needed for therapy-resistant ones.
They say the stem cells are already used to treat autoimmune diseases and the same approach could provide help treat asthma and other severe allergic conditions.
Lead researcher Dr Mezey and colleagues said: “These data suggest that allergic conditions — specifically therapy resistant asthma — might also be a likely target of the recently discovered cellular therapy approach using BMSCs.
“These data provide another example of the ability of BMSCs to ‘sense’ their immunological environment and respond accordingly.
“It is hard to imagine a drug or combination of drugs that could act this way and further work should be done to determine whether the cells could be used to treat patients with therapy-resistant asthma.”