<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16643" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yes I have seen this mentioned in respect to MS
although not this particular article and it is a very interesting indeed, thank
you. I would like to see more years on the results (mostly
because sometimes MS patients can appear to be episode free
for many years and then something will happen) and I will research the
information you provided further. I do have personal experience with stem cell
transplants, as you may recall my husband who was diagnosed with multiple
myeloma (cancer) in 2004 had two stem cell transplants in 2005 and let
me just tell you, it is extremely intense and dangerous (some people don't make
it). When you have the pre chemo before hand they are basically killing
you, by killing all of your cells and it is only the transplant of the stem
cells that saves you, but boy is it rough getting there. </FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>So even if this is proven true at some date I would still hope for our
improving on these treatments so that they are not as severe in nature.... come
on nano medicine! </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have started noticing stem cell
transplants being mentioned as treatments for other diseases as well, I
think I saw someone on TV say they had one to treat Hepatitis and they went into
a 100 percent remission, I had never heard of that before - but it is sort of
like a "reset" if you will, they take yours out and give you new ones - so I can
see it in hindsight.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'm still in an early diagnosis (and I am still
hoping that I am in the lucky 20% -small I know- that doesn't have the most
dire continuation of the illness) so even if this research does move forward it
probably would have to wait to be an option until I had much more debilitating
symptoms, and even at that - since it would be new in relationship to this
disease it would be initially considered "experimental" by the insurance
company. I know this from my experience with Jim, while the allogeneic
stem cell transplants (in which stem cells are provided by a
donor) </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>were available and used regularly for
decades they would not approve it for him, they considered it "experimental"
(not the medical community just the insurance company) so he had
two </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>auto stem cell transplants (self
donated) instead, we had no choice in the matter even though we would have
preferred the allogeneic for his second transplant with the data available at
the time. However you can usually see a clear difference in the amount of money,
</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>just from memory here: for the autologous (which
they approved) it was between 80,000 - 125,000 verses the denied
allogeneic which was about 250,000 (depending upon how long they have to
search for a donor). It's clearly a substantial difference. </FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2>But all this research is terrific because we learn more - and
I really hope they come up with some solutions for MS, MM and for all other
illnesses out there. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In the meantime they did send off my request to the
insurance company for the weekly Avonex shots, haven't heard anything back yet.
</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>Please do not hesitate to forward me anything
else you may find in the future, I want to stay informed and I very much
appreciate your helping me to do so by sending this to me. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Gina "Nanogirl" Miller<BR>Nanotechnology Industries<BR><A
href="http://www.nanoindustries.com">http://www.nanoindustries.com</A><BR>Personal:
<A href="http://www.nanogirl.com">http://www.nanogirl.com</A></DIV>
<DIV>This health stuff blog: <A
href="http://ginamiller.blogspot.com/">http://ginamiller.blogspot.com/</A><BR>Animation
Blog: <A
href="http://maxanimation.blogspot.com/">http://maxanimation.blogspot.com/</A><BR>Craft
blog: <A
href="http://nanogirlblog.blogspot.com/">http://nanogirlblog.blogspot.com/</A><BR>Foresight
Senior Associate <A
href="http://www.foresight.org">http://www.foresight.org</A><BR>Nanotechnology
Advisor Extropy Institute <A
href="http://www.extropy.org">http://www.extropy.org</A><BR>Email: <A
href="mailto:nanogirl@halcyon.com">nanogirl@halcyon.com</A><BR>"Nanotechnology:
Solutions for the future."</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=thespike@satx.rr.com href="mailto:thespike@satx.rr.com">Damien
Broderick</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org
href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">ExI chat list</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, May 06, 2008 1:03 PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [ExI] Gina "Nanogirl"
update: yes it is Multiple Sclerosis</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Damn. But... seen this?<BR><BR><BR>"Bone Marrow Treatments
Restore<BR>Nerves, Expert Says"<BR><BR>by<BR>Maggie Fox, Health and Science
Editor<BR><BR>May 6, 2008; Bethesda, MD (Reuters) -- "An experiment that went
wrong <BR>may provide a new way to treat Multiple Sclerosis," a Canadian
<BR>researcher said on Tuesday. Patients who got bone marrow stem-cell
<BR>transplants -- similar to those given to Leukemia patients -- have
<BR>enjoyed a mysterious remission of their disease. And Dr. Mark <BR>Freedman
of the University of Ottawa is not sure why. "Not a single <BR>patient, and
it's almost seven years, has ever had a relapse," Freedman
said.<BR><BR> Multiple
Sclerosis (MS) affects an estimated 1 million <BR>people globally. There is no
cure. It can cause mild illness in some <BR>people while causing permanent
disability in others. Symptoms may <BR>include numbness or weakness in one or
more limbs, partial or <BR>complete loss of vision, and an unsteady gait.
Freedman, who <BR>specializes in treating MS, wanted to study how the disease
unfolds. <BR>He set up an experiment in which doctors destroyed the bone
marrow <BR>and thus the immune systems of MS
patients.<BR><BR> Then stem
cells known as hematopoeitic stem cells, <BR>blood-forming cells taken from
the bone marrow, were transplanted <BR>back into the patients. "We weren't
looking for improvement," <BR>Freedman told a stem cell seminar at the U.S.
National Institutes of <BR>Health. "The actual study was to reboot the
immune system." Once MS <BR>is diagnosed, Freedman said, "you've already
missed the boat. We <BR>figured we would reboot the immune system and watch
the disease <BR>evolve. It failed."<BR><BR>Stem-Cell
Repair<BR><BR> They had
thought that destroying the bone marrow would <BR>improve symptoms within a
year. After all, MS is believed to be an <BR>autoimmune disease, in which
immune system cells mistakenly attack <BR>the fatty myelin sheath that
protects nerve strands. Patients lose <BR>the ability to move as the thin
strands that connect one nerve cell <BR>to another wither. Instead,
improvements began two years after <BR>treatment. Freedman reported to the
seminar about 17 of the patients <BR>he has given the transplants to. "We have
yet to get the disease to <BR>restart," he said. Patients are not developing
some of the <BR>characteristic brain lesions seen in MS. "But we are seeing
this repair."<BR><BR> MS
patients often have hard-to-predict changes in their <BR>symptoms and disease
course, so Freedman says his team must study the <BR>patients longer before
they can say precisely what is going on. "We <BR>are trying to find out what
is happening and what could possibly be <BR>the source of repair," Freedman
said. But he has found some hints <BR>that may help doctors who treat MS by
using drugs to suppress the <BR>immune system. "Those with a lot of
inflammation going on were the <BR>most likely to benefit (from the
treatment)," he said.<BR><BR>
"We need some degree of inflammation." While inflammation <BR>may be the
process that destroys myelin, it could be that the body <BR>needs some
inflammation to make repairs, Freedman said. Immune cells <BR>secrete
compounds known as cytokines. While these are linked with <BR>inflammation,
they may also direct cells, perhaps even the stem <BR>cells, to regenerate.
The treatment itself is dangerous -- one <BR>patient died when the chemicals
used to destroy his bone marrow also <BR>badly damaged his
liver.<BR><BR>Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Eric
Walsh<BR><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>extropy-chat
mailing list<BR><A
href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</A><BR><A
href="http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat">http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat</A><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>