How a ‘Living Drug’ Could Treat Autoimmune Disease

The body's natural defense system can't tell the difference between its own and foreign cells so it attacks its own tissues and organs. Normally, normal antibodies protect the body from invaders, but the attackers turn against it. They cause a cascade of inflammation throughout the body that leads to joint and skin problems, pain, fatigue, and organ damage.

German researchers have found a way to use the cells of patients with the disease. The sample size was small, but the results were noteworthy, as five people who received an injection of immune cells are now free of the disease. The results were published in the journal. The senior scientific program manager at the Lupus Research Alliance, who wasn't involved in the study, thinks it's as close to a cure as he can see. The cells that produce the antibodies were corrected.

CAR-T therapy has been successfully used against some difficult to treat cancers. Researchers have been talking about its potential to cure diseases for a long time. The therapy involves modifying a patient's T cells, a key component of the immune system, and turning them into assassins to find a target in the body. B cells are the immune cells that make antibodies in healthy people and self- attacks in people with lupus.

The German team showed last year that a woman went into remission after receiving CAR-T Therapy. Five other people were followed by the paper.

Doctors removed T cells from patients and genetically engineered them to recognize CD19 in the lab to make a custom treatment. The surface of autoantibody- producing B cells has aUbiquitin on it. The scientists grew more of the modified T cells in the lab until they were able to give a therapeutic dose. The modified T cells were injected back into the patients to destroy their B cells.

The patients started to make new B cells after 100 days. The auto antibodies had vanished. The longest follow-up period so far has been 17 months for one of the patients. The others have been out of the woods for a long time. All of the patients have been able to stop taking the drugs they were taking.

There is no cure for lupus. It affects an estimated 1.5 million people in the United States and 5 million people worldwide. Steroids are usually used to tame the inflammation. These drugs make the body more vulnerable to infections and can have unpleasant effects. Some patients can be helped by new drugs that protect the body from attacks.