Nature published a paper yesterday which showed that bone marrow transplant can arrest the development of symptoms of Rett Syndrome in mice. Here’s an animation explaining the paper (which I must say was a little confusing when I watched it past my bedtime last night, totally exhausted from the day) –
Animation of Kipnis Nature paper from RSRT on Vimeo.
It is interesting to see that the immune system can be associated with the symptoms of Rett and that possible tweaking of the immune system can mitigate symptoms of Rett Syndrome. I’m so thankful that this work is being done and to all my family and friends who have donated money, thank you for making this a priority. Even though this is very exciting news, my own feelings are one of cautious optimism – I’m the type of person who reduces expectations so that complete failure will not devastate me, and I also know science can be frustratingly slow and go in twist and turns and it’s not like I can go out tomorrow and order up a bone marrow transplant for Edda. I was talking to a friend today and I said that, “If Rett is cured in Edda’s lifetime, it’ll be a miracle.” To which she replied, “It won’t be a miracle, it will be science.”
Here is the press release: