Newsletter_04-2024_EN

Revolutionary cell therapy:
Restarting immune system switches
off autoimmune diseases
One single infusion with CAR-T cells
replaces immune-suppressive medicines
In March 2021, doctors from FAU treated a young woman with a
severe autoimmune disease with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)
T-cells, the first time a treatment of this kind has been attempted
anywhere in the world. Today, nearly 3 years later, they were able to
publish a pilot study in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrating
that CAR T-cell therapy can make various autoimmune
diseases disappear completely for a long period of time, waiving the
need for a further drug-based therapy.
“We believe that we have succeeded in finding the reset button
that works like with a computer to reboot the system and restart
the immune system without errors,” explains Prof. Dr. Georg Schett
(director of Department of Medicine 3 – Rheumatology and Immunology)
who conducted the study together with Prof. Dr. Andreas
Mackensen (director of Department of Medicine 5 – Hematology
and Oncology). The team pressed this “reset button” with 15 patients
with severe forms of autoimmune diseases, such as “red wolf disease”
(systemic lupus erythematosus), systemic sclerosis (also known
as scleroderma) and the autoimmune disease triggering inflammation
of the muscles known as myositis. One single infusion of cells
known as CAR T-cells from the patient’s own body manipulated outside
the body led to a resolution of chronic inflammation in organs
such as the heart, lungs and kidneys, in the joints and in the skin,
allowing patients to stop using immune-suppressive drugs such as
cortisone altogether for several years.
Treatment with CAR T-cells was made possible by using a special
cleanroom in Department of Medicine 5 at Uniklinikum Erlangen.
In this laboratory, the patients’ own immune cells are transformed
into therapeutic weapons (CAR T-cells). PD Dr. Michael Aigner
and his team from the GMP laboratory monitor the manufacturing
process of these living medicines and the quality of the cells before
they are returned to the patient. The CAR T-cells very effectively
attack pathogenic B-lymphocytes in the bone marrow, in the lymph
glands and in all other organs. Completely eliminating B-cells finally
leads to the disease being cured, as has now been demonstrated
very impressively with the publication in the New England Journal
of Medicine.
“It is particularly interesting that the B-cells return at some point
after treatment, but the disease does not,” explain Dr. Jule Taubmann
and Dr. Fabian Müller, who are part of the interdisciplinary team caring
for patients after treatment. The new B-cells in the patients are
naive “innocent” cells similar to those in a child, and no longer trigger
disease.
Further information:
These findings are a breakthrough in immunomedicine. It is already
possible for the CAR T-cell therapy to be used on further patients
with severe forms of systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis
and myositis as part of the CASTLE study conducted at Uniklinikum
Erlangen. Anyone affected by one of these diseases can write to
Car-T-Cell.UKER@uk-erlangen.de.
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
D 91054 Erlangen
Seven of the patients with autoimmune diseases who were successfully treated with CAR-T cells as part of the study. (Image: SIMOarts/Simone Kessler)
www.reinraum.de | www.cleanroom-online.com NEWSLETTER | Edition EN 04-2024
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