Cell Therapy Makes Women with Three Serious Autoimmune Diseases Live Almost Normal Lives

A person is undergoing CAR T-cell therapy. The treatment has proved to be a major breakthrough for some types of cancer. (Photo: Lucy North - PA)

JAKARTA - A 47-year-old woman who has lived with three severe autoimmune diseases for more than 10 years has reportedly improved drastically after undergoing cell therapy in Germany. As reported by The Guardian, quoted Friday, April 10, her condition was even said to be almost back to normal after the treatment "reset" her immune system, which had previously attacked her own body.

The patient underwent therapy last year at Erlangen University Hospital, Germany, after nine previous treatments had failed to provide long-term results. At that time, he needed a blood transfusion every day and permanent blood thinners to hold his disease at bay.

Within weeks of therapy, doctors saw his three diseases respond. For the past 14 months, the patient has been in remission without treatment, meaning his symptoms have eased without the need for further therapy, and he has largely been able to return to a normal life.

According to a report by The Guardian, the team of doctors led by Prof. Fabian Müller said the patient's response was very fast and deep. "The speed and depth of this patient's response is extraordinary," said Müller. He added that the therapy had "significantly improved his quality of life".

The patient has three autoimmune diseases, which are conditions when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body. The first disease is a rare blood disorder that makes the immune system destroy red blood cells. As a result, patients can be very weak and need regular transfusions. The second disease makes the immune system destroy platelets, which are blood components that are important for stopping bleeding. The third disease actually increases the risk of dangerous blood clots. Although different, the three of them are triggered by problematic B cells, which are part of the immune system that makes antibodies.

Because the choice of therapy is exhausted, doctors offer CAR-T, a therapy that was first known as a breakthrough for some types of cancer. The trick is, the patient's white blood cells are taken, then T cells - the immune team that is tasked with hunting down problematic cells - are engineered to be able to recognize and destroy the wrong B cells. After that, the cells are put back into the patient's body.

The results were visible quickly. The patient underwent his last blood transfusion one week after the therapy. Two weeks later, he was strong enough to return to daily activities. A few months later, when B cells reappeared, doctors saw that the cells looked healthy. This suggests that the therapy is not just suppressing the disease, but may actually "reset" the patient's immune system.

The findings were published in the journal Med. Even so, the researchers stressed that these results were still a case report, not proof that the therapy was definitely effective for all patients. Müller said clinical trials were still needed to find out how long the effect lasted and whether this therapy could also work on other autoimmune diseases.

Prof Ben Parker, a rheumatologist from Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, also called the results encouraging. "The prolonged response without normal therapy suggests that the immune system has been reset," he said. However, he stressed that the case report was not enough to prove that this treatment could be used widely.