A focus on allogeneic mesenchymal stromal cells as a versatile therapeutic tool for treating multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a central nervous system (CNS) chronic illness with autoimmune, inflammatory, and neurodegenerative effects characterized by neurological disorder and axonal loss signs due to myelin sheath autoimmune T cell attacks. Existing drugs, including disease-modifying drugs (DMD), help decrease the intensity and frequency of MS attacks, inflammatory conditions, and CNS protection from axonal damage. As they cannot improve axonal repair and show side effects, new therapeutic options are required. In this regard, due to their neuroprotection properties, immunomodulatory effects, and the ability to differentiate into neurons, the transplantation of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) can be used for MS therapy. The use of adipose-derived MSCs (AdMSCs) or autologous bone marrow MSCs (BMSCs) has demonstrated unexpected effects including the invasive and painful isolation method, inadequate amounts of bone marrow (BM) stem cells, the anti-inflammatory impact reduction of AdMSCs that are isolated from fat patients, and the cell number and differentiation potential decrease with an increase in the age of BMSCs donor. Researchers have been trying to search for alternate tissue sources for MSCs, especially fetal annexes, which could offer a novel therapeutic choice for MS therapy due to the limitation of low cell yield and invasive collection methods of autologous MSCs. The transplantation of MSCs for MS treatment is discussed in this review. Finally, it is suggested that allogeneic sources of MSCs are an appealing alternative to autologous MSCs and could hence be a potential novel solution to MS therapy.