Chinese scholars successfully develop universal CAR-T therapy for autoimmune diseases.

Chinese scholars have published the world's first universal CAR-T therapy results on the front page of Nature's official website. This research, led by Professor Xu Huji's team from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University, utilized CRISPR-Cas9 technology to modify CAR-T cells from healthy donors, developing an allogeneic universal CAR-T therapy. This therapy successfully helped three patients with rheumatic and immune diseases achieve long-term remission.

CAR-T cell therapy (chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy) was previously mainly used to treat blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. This study marks a significant breakthrough in the field by being the first to apply it to the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

The research shows that the universal CAR-T therapy is not only effective but also has the potential to significantly reduce costs and production time, meeting the needs of a large number of patients. However, whether donor-derived CAR-T cell therapy carries other risks still requires further research.

Professor Xu Huji's team has treated 24 patients with different types of allogeneic CAR-T cells, achieving expected results. This progress demonstrates the enormous potential of this therapy in the treatment of immune diseases, signaling that treatment has entered a new stage.