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Precision medicine for autoimmune disease

Nature Biotechnology volume 34, pages 930–932 (2016)Cite this article

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An antigen-specific cell therapy for autoimmune disease avoids compromising immunity as a whole.

The field of oncology is abuzz over recent clinical trial results showing that patient T cells engineered in the laboratory are remarkably effective against a few intractable cancers. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells express a recombinant receptor that binds a specific tumor antigen, inducing the cell to kill target tumor cells. Writing in Science, Ellebrecht et al.1 have now adapted the approach to autoimmune disease. They developed chimeric autoantibody receptor (CAAR) T cells as an antigen-specific therapy for the autoimmune disease pemphigus vulgaris and showed, both in vitro and in mice, the capacity of the cells to selectively eliminate B lymphocytes that produce autoantibodies to desmoglein (Dsg) 3, the pathogenic mediators of the disease. If these results can be translated to human autoimmune disease, this would represent a major leap toward achieving durable remissions or cures for certain severe and disabling conditions.

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Figure 1: Applying chimeric autoantigen receptors to treat autoimmunity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lucienne Chatenoud is at the Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France, and INSERM U1151, CNRS UMR 8253, INEM Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, Paris, France.,

    Lucienne Chatenoud

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  1. Lucienne Chatenoud
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Correspondence to Lucienne Chatenoud.

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Chatenoud, L. Precision medicine for autoimmune disease. Nat Biotechnol 34, 930–932 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3670

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