Message from Professor Neil Scolding

We have had such a very large number of emails, letters, and enquiries, that it is difficult if not impossible for me to respond personally to them all.  I do apologise for this.

The situation is that we are of course in the very early stages of developing this as a therapy.  The small study that we have completed was mainly a safety study, with just half a dozen patients, but we were of course delighted that not only did it confirm safety, but, as you will have read on the internet or in one of the newspapers, we also found evidence from tests we performed on the patients that electrical conduction of nerve impulses in the brain and spinal cord had rather improved following the treatment.

This has left 2 questions - first, was this apparent benefit a real effect, rather than any kind of statistic or simply  resulting from the fact that we could only study such a small number of patients?  And secondly, what can we do to improve and develop this further as a therapy?  The answer to the second question lies in more laboratory research, which we are continuing, and which we hope to expand, while the answer to the first question lies in undertaking a second larger clinical trial which we are hoping and aiming to do later this year.

We are still at the very early stages of planning this trial, and I have to emphasise that at present, we do not have regulatory permission to commence the study - we are in the process of preparing the paper work for this.

Additionally, we do not have the very significant funds that we need to conduct a second trial, though again we have submitted grant applications for this and hope to hear the outcome in the coming weeks and months.

Because of these uncertainties, we are most certainly not in a position to be able to promise to any one individual or other whether or not they will be able to participate in the trial, I hope that you will understand this.

Broadly speaking, I suspect we will be recruiting patients who have had the disease for some years, rather than individuals in the first year or two of the disease, and who have acquired some form of persistent problem relating to MS in terms of limb function.  More than this, it is impossible to say until the entry criteria and exclusion criteria have been finalised and confirmed by the regulatory bodies.

I hope this is helpful.

With kind regards

Professor N J Scolding
Burden Professor of Clinical Neurosciences Institute of Clinical Neurosciences Frenchay Hospital