Scientists Discover Surprisingly Simple Potential Solution for Bone Marrow Transplant Complications
University of Michigan researchers are learning potato starch as a possible answer to stop Graft versus Host Disease in stem cell transplant sufferers, with a section II medical trial at present in progress.
Research signifies the potential to stop the incidence of Graft versus Host Disease.
Researchers on the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center have recognized a promising method to scale back a frequent and severe danger related to stem cell transplants from donor blood or bone marrow.
Approximately 18,000 individuals per yr within the United States are recognized with life-threatening sicknesses, together with blood cancers the place a blood or bone marrow stem cell transplant from a donor is their greatest therapy choice. Each yr, roughly 9,000 of those transplants are carried out within the U.S.
Understanding Graft versus Host Disease
When sufferers obtain a stem cell transplant, they get a brand new immune system from the donor whose job is to assault cells that don’t belong there together with most cancers cells.
Sometimes, nonetheless, these donor immune cells (the graft) start to see the affected person’s personal body (the host) as unfamiliar and overseas. As a consequence, the donor cells might assault the affected person’s personal organs and tissues, inflicting Graft versus Host Disease.
GVHD develops in as much as half of sufferers who obtain stem cell transplants from a donor’s blood or bone marrow. It can have an effect on many elements of the body and may vary from gentle or average to extra extreme and even life-threatening.
The Challenge of Treating GVHD
The solution to forestall and deal with GVHD is through the use of sturdy medicines to suppress the immune system which may trigger sufferers to get infections which can be life-threatening. Therefore, whereas bone marrow and blood stem cell transplants from a donor are lifesaving for many sufferers with varied severe sicknesses, the event of GVHD could cause harm and even demise and the therapies accessible for GVHD are dangerous.
Previous analysis confirmed that the micro organism that usually dwell within the intestines and their merchandise can have an effect on whether or not or not GVHD occurs after a transplant.
Potential Breakthrough with Potato Starch
Researchers have discovered {that a} food complement produced from potato starch, when given to 10 sufferers who obtained stem cell transplants from a donor, modified the merchandise of intestinal micro organism in a means that would probably forestall GVHD from occurring.
“GVHD is a major limitation to the lifesaving capability of blood or marrow stem cell transplants. It is exciting to think of the prospect of potentially finding a simple, low-cost, and safe approach to mitigating this dangerous complication for patients who need a stem cell transplant, but researching this approach in more patients is still needed to confirm,” stated Mary Riwes, D.O., assistant professor of inner medication and medical director of the inpatient grownup stem cell transplant unit of the Medical Directors Partnering to Lead Along with Nurse Managers program.
Investigators are at present enrolling extra sufferers for a second section of this research to find out whether or not taking potato starch will certainly end in much less GVHD after stem cell transplant. Sixty sufferers present process a blood or bone marrow stem cell transplant from a donor who’re ten years or older will probably be randomized to take potato starch or placebo starch along with taking all the standard drugs for stopping GVHD with 80% receiving potato starch and 20% placebo starch. This section II medical trial will assist researchers study whether or not or not taking potato starch is an efficient intervention for stopping GVHD.
Reference: “Feasibility of a dietary intervention to modify gut microbial metabolism in patients with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation” by Mary M. Riwes, Jonathan L. Golob, John Magenau, Mengrou Shan, Gregory Dick, Thomas Braun, Thomas M. Schmidt, Attaphol Pawarode, Sarah Anand, Monalisa Ghosh, John Maciejewski, Darren King, Sung Choi, Gregory Yanik, Marcus Geer, Ethan Hillman, Costas A. Lyssiotis, Muneesh Tewari and Pavan Reddy, 19 October 2023, Nature Medicine.
DOI: 10.1038/s41591-023-02587-y
More details about this Phase II trial might be discovered on Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT02763033
Funding/disclosures: Thanks to the volunteers who participated within the research and the medical and analysis workers of the University of Michigan Bone Marrow Transplant program. This work was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (grant no. P01 HL149633, P.R., M.T., M.M.R.) which facilitated all bio pattern analyses. The funder had no function within the design and evaluation of the research. Resistant starch was bought utilizing institutional startup funds (M.M.R).
