Politics
Tuesday February 24, 2009
Adult Stem Cell Treatment Leaves College Student Free of Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
CHICAGO, February 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Edwin McClure, a Virginia Commonwealth University graduate student, and one of the participants in clinical trials involving adult stem cells, says that he is completely cured of the multiple sclerosis symptoms that began to afflict him in high school.
"It's a blessing," the young student told Bloomburg News. "My disease has been halted."
A team of researchers at Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago, including Dr. Richard Burt, the team leader and the hospital's Division Chief of Immunotherapy, developed the treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) using stem cells taken from the patient's own bone marrow. (See: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09020202.html)
"For the first time ever in the history of treating MS we have reversed disability," Dr. Burt said of the results of clinical trials using adult stem cells.
"All therapies to date ... have focused on slowing the progression of disease," he said. But with the new treatment, he said, "This is the first time we have turned the tide on this disease."
McClure first showed symptoms of MS in 2000 when he was a senior in high school. "I couldn't deal with heat. I had really bad balance," he said. He also said that his vision began to be seriously distorted.
"It threw me for a loop," McClure said. "This is a disease that typically hits 40-year-old white women and I'm like, 'I'm an 18-year-old black male.' Somebody didn't get the memo."
Hearing about the Northwestern University clinical trial from Dr. Katarina Bilikova, McClure flew to Evanston, Ill., to participate.
During the course of the treatment, which researchers described as a "re-setting" of the body's immune system, doctors took out McClure's own stem cells from his bone marrow. He then was given a course of chemotherapy to destroy all existing immune cells in his body. The stem cells were then re-injected and developed into "naïve" immune cells that regenerated his immune system.
Three years after undergoing the procedure, McClure said his symptoms have disappeared.
"It opened up the fence that MS had me locked into," Edwin said in a Fox News report. He added that he and his mother Bernice also attribute the success of the treatment to their faith.
"Without having God in our lives, I don't think any one of us would have made it through," Bernice McClure said.
Read previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage and related articles:
New Adult Stem Cell Treatment "Turns the Tide" on MS Symptoms
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09020202.html
Amid Media Excitement, Embryonic Stem Cell Trial Far Behind Adult Stem Cells, Says Expert
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012605.html
Adult Stem Cell Therapy may Treat AIDS
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012006.html
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- "Manhattan Declaration" Embodies U.S. Christian Pushback against Abortion, Same-Sex "Marriage"
- Hoffman Loses Final Tally of NY-23 Race; Alleges ACORN Tampering and Fraud
- Abortion Activist Judge Hamilton Confirmed with Help of Ten Republican Senators
- CDC Reverses Gardasil Vaccine Requirement for Immigrants
- Germany Faces Economic Downturn with Plummeting Birth Rate and Aging Population
- CCHD in Archdiocese of Chicago Says it is Working to Fix Problems
- Rejection of Washington DC Marriage Referendum Challenged With Legal Suit
- Obama-Supporting Homosexual Activist to Out Sexually Involved Priests Unless they Support Gay 'Marriage
- Austrian Catholic Bishops Issue Bland Response to Govt's Homosexual Partnership Bill
- Interim Report on Catholic Sex-Abuse Says "Homosexual Identity" Not a Predictor of Sex Abuse
- LSN NewsBytes - US Health Care Reform
- LSN NewsBytes - Climate Change/Global Warming
- Pro-Abortion Lawmakers Shower Praise on Senate Bill's Phony Abortion Compromise
- 59 Bishops Contributed Financially to Maine Bishop's Effort to Oppose Maine Same-Sex "Marriage" Law
Most Read this Week
- Largest U.S. Homosexual Publisher Shuts Down, Closing Major Gay Newspapers
- Italian Mayors Order Crufixes Put in Classrooms in Revolt against European Court Ruling
- EWTN's Arroyo Hosts Reform CCHD Reps Who Reveal Shocking Evidence Against USCCB Anti-Poverty Arm
- Nat'l Organization for Marriage Responds to Miss California "Sex Tape" Scandal
- Obama Evades Questioning on Stupak Amendment in FOX Interview
- French Judge Finds Hospital Guilty of "Unreasonable Obstinacy" in Saving Newborn's Life
- EU Leaders to Choose President today in Secret "Soviet Style" Meetings
- Hoffman "Unconcedes" Battle for NY-23: Recount Provides Hope for "Miracle" Victory
- CCHD Responds to Reform Movement
- White House Advisor Indicates Obama Will Work to Abolish Pro-Life Health Amendment
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.