Researchers have found that Stem Cell Therapy is better than Gilenya (fingolimod) or Tysabri (natalizumab). It is advanced to minus relapse rates and disability for people with highly active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Also, the efficacy of stem cell therapy is a bit different from treatment with Ocrevus (ocrelizumab). The Gilenya and Tysabri researchers wrote, “We show that over 5 years, [stem cell therapy] is associated with a lower risk of relapses and a higher chance of recovery from disability in highly active relapsing-remitting MS when compared with.”

Stem Cell Therapy, also popular as Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (aHSCT) is a top procedure that has the intent to stop the inflammatory attacks driving MS by resetting a person’s immune system. This whole process involves harvesting a patient’s own hematopoietic stem cells that reside in the bone marrow that has the responsibility for making mature immune cells. After the process of intensive chemotherapy or radiation therapy regimen, these cells are infused back into the patient where the motive is cells to repopulate immune systems with healthy cells that will not be primed to attack the brain and spinal cord.

In the countries like United States, aHSCT still has not been approved for MS. The research says that it can slow down the progression of RRMS and especially for those people suffering from highly active disease. A large number of DMTs (disease-modifying treatments) are approved for RRMS and the work is to reduce inflammation and risk of relapse, disability progression by slowing the inflammatory attack in the nervous system, etc.

Compared with 144 patients given aHSCT and 769 given Gilenya, patients of stem cell treatment faced experienced fewer relapses per year on average (0.09 vs. 0.20, a 74% reduction in the risk of relapses). Ocrevus analysis has shown 343 given the medication aHSCT to 110. The bottom line was no difference between these therapies related to relapse rates or disability-related outcomes.

“Ultimately, head-to-head contemporaneous comparison in randomized clinical trials will provide the most robust assessment of the efficacy and safety of AHSCT,” U.S. researchers wrote. They also said, “After completion of these trials we will have a better sense of the potential role for AHSCT and when and where it might be justified to use. Until that time, the current study highlights that AHSCT may have advantages over some but not all existing DMTs used for the treatment of MS.”