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Car-T cells are a cancer therapy that mobilizes genetically engineered immune cells to target and destroy cancer cells. Scientists have imagined reproducing the same scheme but this time targeting the lymphocytes responsible for multiple sclerosis. A first test was carried out in mice.
Inspired by Car-T cell therapy, which uses genetically engineered immune cells to target and eradicate cancer cells, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, USA, have had the idea of transposing this technology to fight against the cells responsible for multiple sclerosis (MS).
What is multiple sclerosis?
The leading cause of severe non-traumatic disability in young people, multiple sclerosis affects 120,000 people each year in France. MS is an autoimmune disease, caused by T lymphocytes that attack the myelin sheath, the protective envelope of the axons in the central nervous system. This phenomenon leads to lesions at different levels of the central nervous system, called plaques: hence the name of the disease.
As the myelin is eaten away, communication between the brain and spinal cord and the rest of the body deteriorates, and symptoms such as fatigue, pain, tingling, loss of vision or coordination appear.
An immunotherapy approach tested in mice
Researchers have therefore developed CAR-T cells capable of seeking out and destroying the T cells that cause multiple sclerosis. They made bait and designed a molecule by combining a fragment of a protein found in myelin with a protein that activates T cells. Only T cells that target myelin respond to this hybrid molecule. This bait was then linked to a certain type of T cell known as killer T cells. The objective is that all the T cells causing multiple sclerosis are eliminated by these killer T cells.
Once these cells and these baits were developed, the scientists tested their hypothesis on an animal model, mice with an MS-like disease.
Encouraging results
According to the authors, treating these mice with the modified CAR-T cells prevented disease in those who had not yet developed symptoms and reduced signs of disease in those who already showed neurological effects. “Our CAR-T cells were very effective in treating mice with an MS-like disease” explains Chyi-Song Hsieh, professor of rheumatology and co-author of this work. “What is important here“, adds the researcher is that”we were able to use CAR-T cells to kill only the immune cells that cause autoimmunity and not other immune cells that you might need to protect against viruses or other infections.”
The opinion of Dr Wilfrid Casseron, neurologist in Aix-en-Provence
“This study is ingenious and I think its results are promising. Currently, treatments exist for multiple sclerosis, but they only put a lid on the disease and the symptoms. Using the same therapy as Car-T cells, this makes it possible to target the cells that are causing the problem, to eliminate the cause of the disease without influencing the other immune cells. This is not yet a technique that can be used in humans today. today, but I think I can say without being mistaken – if the tests in humans are confirmed – that we can count on this type of treatment for patients in about ten years”.