CAR T cells attacking cancer (illustrative image)
One woman saw all three autoimmune diseases treated simultaneously by genetically modifying her immune cells to eliminate the dysregulated cells that were causing problems.
The 47-year-old German woman previously needed daily blood transfusions to control her health conditions, two of which affected her blood cells.
But, one experimental treatmentwhich reconfigured your immune system effectively, changed his life completely. This is what a study reveals this Thursday in With.
The user did not need treatments for almost a year after her immune cells have been genetically modified and used to eliminate the dysregulated cells attacking your body.
“When we met her, the woman was bedridden. We treated her, and seven days later, she got out of bed,” the study’s corresponding author told . Fabian Müllerfrom the University Hospital of Erlangen, Germany.
Within a few months, it seemed to be fully recovered. “I saw her yesterday. perfectly fine”, praised Müller, 11 months after treatment.
“The most incredible thing is that the woman had three autoimmune diseasesand all of them could be treated with a single treatment“, he added.
This woman’s rare case
In response to a viral infection, our bodies generate many new immune cells with random mutations. These mutant cells then go through a selection process to choose those that produce antibodies that bind to the virus, and to eliminate those that produce antibodies that attack our own body.
However, sometimes, as explained by , immune cells self-reactive escape this selection process and once they do, can persist throughout life.
In the woman’s case, this happened when she became pregnant more than a decade ago. The body began to produce antibodies that attached to its red blood cells, resulting in their destruction. This potentially deadly condition is called autoimmune hemolytic anemia.
Your immune system also began producing antibodies that targeted your platelets, cell fragments that help your blood to clot – a condition called immune thrombocytopenia.
Third, it began producing antibodies against certain proteins that help prevent blood clots, which meant it simultaneously had an increased risk of the opposite problem: the formation of dangerous blood clots, known as antiphospholipid syndrome.
The woman had been treated with several immunosuppressive drugs. However, none worked well. He needed regular blood transfusions to survive, along with anticoagulant medication to prevent clots.
Miraculous CAR-T cells
She ended up being referred to Müller’s team, the first to treat autoimmune conditions with CAR-T cells in 2022. Before that, CAR-T cells had only been used to treat cancer.
CAR-T cells are T cells – immune cells that normally eliminate infected or cancerous cells – that are taken from the person undergoing treatment. In the laboratory, they are genetically modified to make them attack a target specific and then reintroduced to that person.
To treat the woman, Müller’s team created CAR-T cells that target immune cells that produce antibodies. When the modified cells were introduced into your body, eliminated antibody-producing cells.
The CAR-T approach has shown potential for a wide range of autoimmune conditions, including lupus, multiple sclerosis, colitis and severe asthma.
When CAR-T cells are used to treat cancers, they often trigger serious side effects, but this is not being seen in autoimmune conditions.
