Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) six years ago and left unable to walk unaided, Numan Unees was facing a challenging future before a pioneering clinical trial gave him new hope.
The 40-year-old is the first patient in Sheffield and the seventh in a global trial to receive an immunotherapy treatment originally developed for some cancers.
Experts said it is still early days, but if this experimental treatment eventually proves to be safe and effective for MS patients it could be a “gamechanger”.
Speaking just a month after receiving the therapy, Numan, from Rotherham, said it would be “like starting a new life” if it worked and he regained some mobility.
Multiple sclerosis is a condition where the immune system mistakenly attacks nerves in the brain and spinal cord.
In MS, the nerve cells and their protective coating, called myelin, are damaged, which causes a range of symptoms like blurred vision, loss of mobility and brain fog.
The treatment, which is known as CAR T cell therapy, aims to reset part of the immune system.
It works by taking some of a patient’s immune cells, known as T Cells, and modifying them in a laboratory.
They are then put back into the body, where they are designed to find and destroy the specific immune cells causing the damage in MS.
It has already shown promise in the treatment of some blood cancers, with patients achieving long-term remission where standard treatments have failed.
Researchers are now looking to see if this mechanism can be replicated in patients with autoimmune conditions such as MS and lupus.
