The researchers, led by Dr. Georg Seth of the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, who published in the medical journal Nature Medicine, treated four women and one man with an average age of 22 who suffered from drug-resistant lupus. medicines.
German scientists announced that, thanks to cellular immunotherapy with CAR T lymphocytes, a complete remission of systemic lupus erythematosus disease was possible for the first time in five patients, who have now been drug-free for up to 17 months.
The researchers, led by Dr. Georg Seth of the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, who published in the medical journal Nature Medicine, treated four women and one man with an average age of 22 who suffered from drug-resistant lupus. medicines.
Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune rheumatic disease that affects about one in a thousand people (0.1%) worldwide, especially young women. Autoantibodies produced as a result of the disease (cells of the defense mechanism but directed against healthy cells), affect the joints and skin, also possibly causing serious damage to organs such as the kidneys, brain and heart.
Most patients to date are given glucocorticoids and therapies that target T cells or B cells that produce antibodies. But these treatments are often ineffective, and no treatment has been discovered that achieves a complete cure.
The new treatment used laboratory-modified CAR (Chimeric Antigen Receptor) T cells, which are designed to kill B cells by targeting the CD19 protein on their surface. The study showed that, three to 17 months after this treatment, all patients showed improvement in symptoms to the point of remission, with the disappearance of their self-destructive autoantibodies, so that they no longer needed any more conventional treatment.
Side effects of CAR T therapy were generally mild (eg, fever), and there were no infections in the patients. However, although these findings are very encouraging and show the potential for a new effective treatment option, larger clinical studies should follow to confirm the safety and efficacy of the treatment in patients with lupus erythematosus.
RES-EMP
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