Shelly Fan in Singularity Hub:
For the first time, an off-the-shelf CAR T cell therapy has been used to treat potentially life-threatening autoimmune disorders in three people. With a single shot, the treatment rapidly reversed their debilitating symptoms for up to a year. The treatment changed one recipient’s life. Diagnosed with systemic sclerosis—an autoimmune condition that wrecked his muscles and joints—the 57-year-old man, who the study identifies by his last name, Gong, regained his life just two weeks after the injection. He could move the muscles around his mouth to smile. His fingers again danced across a keyboard at work.
After a year, he told Nature, “I feel very good.”
Gong is part of an ongoing clinical trial to genetically reprogram healthy donor cells into a universal “living drug.” The trial, set to end in 2025, could upend current interventions for untreatable autoimmune disorders. These life-long diseases are mostly managed, but not cured, with immunosuppressant drugs. Though helpful, the medications drastically lower a person’s ability to battle infectious diseases, making it hard to fight off bacterial or viral attacks.
More here.
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