Cord Blood Stem Cell Success Story at the U of MN

Here in Minnesota we are blessed with some of the finest medical institutions in the world. A very good friend of mine works at one of those institutions at the cutting edge of medical research and technology, the Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic at the University of Minnesota.

She forwarded this success story from the Decatur, IL Herald Review about one of their patients. The patient, 10 year old Chase Davis, is one of the latest beneficiaries of the research being done in cord blood stem cells. These are stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood rather than the more controversial embryonic stem cells. The success the University of Minnesota is having with cord blood is one reason to support funding further research down that avenue rather than embryonic stem cell research which has yet to produce any practical uses.

Chase Davis suffers from adrenoleukodystrophy, which is best know as Lorenzo's Oil disease. Below are a few excerpts, but I suggest you read the whole story...

Who's the bravest kid you know?

For the University of Minnesota physician who asked the question, the answer is Chase Davis, 10-year-old son of Bev and Darrin Davis of Mount Zion.

...

Just weeks later at Barnes Children's Hospital in St. Louis, the diagnosis was confirmed. The Barnes' staff, said Bev Davis, suggested contacting the Fairview hospital as the best choice in the country for treatment.

That's where the Davises met Drs. Lawrence Charnas and Paul Orchard as well as a team that included geneticists, biochemists and psychologists. Charnas is an assistant professor of pediatrics and neurology at the University of Minnesota Medical School; and Orchard, an associate professor of pediatrics and the medical director of the Inherited Metabolic and Storage Disease Bone Marrow Transplantation Program.

Adrenoleukodystrophy, explained the physician, describes the organs involved, adrenal glands and the white matter of the brain, and dystrophy means it's inherited and degenerative. The white matter, tubing which protects nerves, was being destroyed.

The Minnesota team offered Davises a chance for Chase to receive a cord blood cell transplant in conjunction with a drug regime untried for adrenoleukodystrophy.

....

So Chase and the Davises were offered a chance - have a cord blood cell transplant and try a regimen of Mucomist.

"Did we know it was going to work?" asked Bev Davis. "No.

"Did we know what was going to happen if we didn't? Yes."

Chase's treatment wasn't quite experimental, explained Charnas, but it wasn't quite standard either.

To prepare for the transplant, Chase underwent 10 days of chemotherapy.

"First the chemotherapy destroyed his bone marrow," said Charnas. "That gets rid of his immune system, the immune system that in Chase's case was attacking the brain. "The transplant puts in another immune system that in theory will not attack the white matter.

....

"The first big boost was the MRI scan at 30 days. There was no change from the last one.
"That was spectacular news," Charnas said. "Then at 92 days, it was also unchanged which was really spectacular. For a child as late in the disease as he was not to worsen was spectacular."

Darrin Davis uses the word "miracle" in describing Chase's recovery.

"This was not a miracle; it's wonderful," Charnas said. "But we went into this with science and years of experience. Chase is the first truly living testament."