“Engineered immune cells are being used to successfully treat people with a range of debilitating autoimmune conditions, such as ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Researchers say positive results from around a dozen studies over the past three years suggest CAR-T-cell therapy could eventually be used treat any disease in which the immune system attacks the body…

Earlier this year, Bing Du, an immunologist at East China Normal University in Shanghai, and his team published the results of a CAR-T pilot study using immune cells from a donor to treat drug-resistant lupus. Donor-derived cells could act like a generic version of CAR-T treatment that could be mass-produced, cutting manufacturing time and lowering costs. Last year, Du was also involved in a world-first study of bioengineered and modified immune cells from a donor for the treatment of two rare and severe autoimmune diseases.

As part of the latest study, four women with a form of lupus that affects multiple organs received chemotherapy to reduce levels of their white blood cells, followed by an infusion of donor-derived CAR T cells. After three months, the women no longer experienced symptoms such as arthritis, swelling of blood vessels and alopecia, and one was in remission and no longer needed any medication. The other three women received low-dose steroids as a maintenance therapy.”

From Nature.