WIKIMEDIA, OPENSTAX COLLEGEDespite the fact that they carried another’s stem cells in their blood, some participants of a clinical trial testing a modified blood stem-cell transplant for severe sickle cell disease have safely terminated their immunosuppressant medication that most stem-cell recipients take all their lives. The results of the study, conducted at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, were published this week (July 1) in JAMA.
“That the patients who discontinued this medication were able to do so safely points to the stability of the partial transplant regimen,” lead author Matthew Hsieh of the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases said in a press release.
“Side effects caused by immunosuppressants can endanger patients already weakened by years of organ damage from sickle cell disease,” added coauthor John Tisdale of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. “Not having to permanently rely on this medication, along with use of the relatively less-toxic partial stem-cell transplant, means that even older patients and those with severe sickle cell disease may be able to reverse their condition.”
In addition to allowing half of the trial participants to stop taking immunosuppresants without ...
