A pioneering clinical trial led by Dr. Georg Schett at Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany has shown that a single treatment with CAR T cells may help patients with severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) achieve long-term remission. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study involved 15 patients who had not responded to standard treatments.
The therapy uses genetically modified T cells engineered to target CD19, a protein found on B cells that are thought to contribute to autoimmune disease. After treatment, all patients experienced improvement in symptoms and disease markers. Dr. Schett said, “We were quite surprised by the strength and duration of the effect.”
Patients entered drug-free remission between 3 and 17 months after the infusion and remained in remission for up to 22 months without the need for further immunosuppressive therapy. Side effects such as cytokine release syndrome were mild to moderate and resolved quickly. Importantly, B cells gradually returned within months, but the disease did not.
Dr. Jane Buckner of the Benaroya Research Institute commented that although the trial is small, the results are significant: “What this tells us is that in at least some autoimmune diseases, it seems you may not have to kill off all the B cells forever to reset the immune system.”
Larger trials are now being planned to further investigate the safety and durability of this CAR T cell approach in systemic lupus and other autoimmune conditions.
