Our immune systems never stop targeting cells they regard as a threat, so it’s really bad news when rogue immune cells mistakenly turn on us, as they do in autoimmune conditions. Existing treatments suppress these attacks, but don’t stop them. But a new approach that addresses the cause of these disorders by killing off the rogue cells is proving wildly successful.
“All the big pharma companies are jumping on the bandwagon now,” says Reuben Benjamin at King’s College London. There are dozens of clinical trials under way around the world, and the first treatments could be approved as early as next year, he says, as they’re proving to be vastly superior to those currently used.
The key to these new treatments are genetically engineered cells known as CAR T-cells. These are made from the T-cells that your immune system usually employs to kill off invasive bacteria or virus-infected cells. The T-cells are extracted from a person, programmed to attack a specific kind of cell and then returned to that individual.
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