Joy Kong, MD explains why stem cell treatments fail when viral infections are present. Mesenchymal stem cells don't work as expected because viruses interfere with how they function in your body.
We actually know that certain viruses can selectively attack mesenchymal stem cells, which means, strangely, these mesenchymal stem cells, we know have receptors for herpes family virus. So there's occult infection, hidden infection, such as things like from the herpes family. Then they could selectively destroy the mesenchymal stem cells that I'm giving to patients. It's a tug of war. Just because you have a cold infection doesn't mean that I can't give you stem cells, because the stem cells can also help your body fight infection, as we have seen in clinical studies. So they can attack and help you get rid of the virus. The virus can attack them and try to kill them off. Right. So it's a tug of war. So sometimes we don't know which side is going to win.
