Treatment of an autoimmune disease for the first time through manipulation of cells

Researchers recently managed to treat an autoimmune disease by using the treatment method used for cancer patients.

By testing this method on 5 patients with lupus, scientists were able to achieve significant results with the help of the cancer treatment technique and witness the improvement and cessation of this disease.

In this method, chimeric T cell therapy is called antigen receptor. It is said that if success is achieved in the next tests with a larger number of patients, there is hope that it will be used to treat lupus.

Lupus is a disease in which the body’s immune system attacks its own cells, causing inflammation, muscle pain and fatigue, and serious tissue damage. This attack is carried out by defective B cells. As an immune cell, B cells secrete autoantibodies that stick to body cells and attract other cells to destroy them.

Now, scientists extract T cells from the patient’s blood through the treatment of chimeric T cells, which were previously used to control cancer, and re-inject them into the patient’s body after processing them in the laboratory. Finally, these manipulated cells attack and destroy the defective B cells.

By testing this treatment method on several lupus patients who had serious kidney, lung, heart and joint damage, they found that with just one treatment session, the number of defective B cells and the number of autoantibodies decreased significantly. has been found The symptoms of these patients were reduced and all of them stopped taking their previous medications. On the other hand, this disease did not recur in any of them.

The scientists published the results of this research method in the journal Nature Medicine and said that they are still evaluating the condition of these 5 patients.