One injection of CAR-T cells provides long-term remission of asthma in mice

The scientific team has developed Treatment of asthma using CAR-T cells, in which a single injection of CAR-T cells resulted in remission of signs and symptoms. illness during at least one year in mice.

Details of the strategy were published in the journal Nature Immunology in a paper written by researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. The results, although yet to be demonstrated in humans, They may represent a “potential pathway” to the development of treatments capable of inducing long-term remission of allergic asthma.

He asthma This is one of the most common respiratory diseases. It affects more than 300 million people worldwide and causes about 250,000 deaths per year.according to the log summary.

CAR-T cell therapy is widely used to treat diseases such as cancer and may be a promising treatment for chronic asthma.

CAR-T cell therapy, whose full name is chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (abbreviated CAR-T), It involves modifying the immune cells of a sick person’s T lymphocytes (white blood cells) in the laboratory so that they are able to recognize and fight, in the case of cancer, tumor cells..

This time, Ming Peng and his team developed a CAR-T cell therapy to treat asthma and tested it by administering a single dose in mouse models of allergic asthma.

They then monitored the animals for signs of allergic activity and pneumonia.

Treatment is aimed at addressing the causes of allergic reactions. A single injection of CAR-T cells modified to attack eosinophils themselves—a type of white blood cell activated by certain infections and allergies—resulted in remission of the disease’s signs and symptoms.

The researchers found that CAR-T cells neutralized white blood cells and blocked the function of proteins involved in asthma pathology, suppressing lung inflammation and improving asthma symptoms in mice.

Except, These cells have been observed to persist for at least a year and continue to prevent allergic immune reactions..

The authors note that future clinical trials will need to test whether these CAR-T cells are safe and effective for use in patients with allergic asthma, and suggest that the therapy could potentially be adapted to treat other types of allergic diseases.

José Gregorio Soto Campos, director of the Department of Pulmonology and Clinical Allergy at Jerez Hospital, says the study published today is of “high quality” in terms of basic research.

The benefit of CAR-T cell therapy in asthma has not been studied, so this study opens up “new possibilities,” says the expert, who was not involved with the Science Media Center Spain, a science resource platform for journalists.