Immunotherapy could offer remission from autoimmune disease

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-02-22 09:00

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A small trial of immunotherapy for the treatment of autoimmune diseases including lupus, sclerosis and myositis, has found that treatment with CAR T-cells led to significant improvement and in some cases complete remission of the diseases. CAR T-cell treatments have emerged in recent years as a powerful way to treat cancer, but in this case, they have been designed to target the cells involved in autoimmune diseases. The researchers gave the CAR T-cells to 15 patients and found that after 15 months, the 8 patients with lupus were in remission. The remaining patients, with sclerosis and myositis, also had a clinical improvement and all patients were able to stop their other immunosuppressive drugs. The authors say that while it is too early to say whether these patients are cured of their autoimmune disease, the treatment appears to be able to achieve sustained disease- and drug-free remission. A linked editorial says the findings are remarkable.