Scientists hail autoimmune disease therapy breakthrough

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/sep/15/scientists-hail-autoimmune-disease-therapy-breakthrough-car-t-cell-lupus

Scientists hail autoimmune disease therapy breakthrough
Study finds CAR T-cell treatment sends lupus into remission, raising hopes it could be used to treat diseases such as multiple sclerosis

Ian Sample Science editor

Thu 15 Sep 2022 16.00 BST
Five people with severe autoimmune disease have become the first in the world to receive a groundbreaking therapy that uses genetically altered cells to drive the illness into remission.

The four women and one man, aged 18 to 24, received transfusions of modified immune cells to treat severe lupus, an autoimmune disease that can cause life-threatening damage to the heart, lungs, brain and kidneys.

The treatment drove the disease into remission in all five patients, who have now been off lupus medication for between three and 17 months. Doctors say the apparent success raises hopes for tackling other autoimmune conditions such a rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
(snip)

Doctors in Germany treated five severely ill patients with CAR T-cell therapy after other treatments failed to improve their symptoms. The approach has proved successful at combating certain cancers since it was first used in a leukaemia patient in 2015. CAR T-cell therapy involves collecting the patient’s T-cells – a key component of the immune system – and modifying them so that they attack new targets, such as cancer cells, when infused back into the body.

In the latest work, doctors took T-cells from the lupus patients and modified them so that, on re-infusion, they attacked the patients’ B cells. In lupus, B cells churn out autoantibodies, which instead of defending the body against invading pathogens, attack healthy tissues instead.

According to the study in Nature Medicine, the therapy in effect wiped out the patients’ aberrant B cells and dramatically improved their condition. The disease affected multiple organs in all five patients, but after the therapy severe symptoms including arthritis, fatigue, fibrosis of the heart valves, and lung inflammation all cleared up.
(snip)