Rebooting the immune system with cytoxan

Drachman et al. Annals of Neurology2003 and Lewis and Lisak editorial same issue.

Drachman et al. take advantage of the resistance of stem cells to cycophosphamide because they lack the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase. That makes bone marrow transplantation unneeded, with the hope that the rebooted marrow lacks the pathologic autoimmune response seen before treatment. It is not clear that rebooting is not simply effective because it is prolonged severe immunosuppression. In other AI disorders, the technique has been used producing remissions but also deaths.