Resetting the immune system to fight autoimmune diseases

Can the body be taught to fight autoimmune diseases? It would seem so, by helping it produce its own CAR-T cells. This technology involves taking T lymphocytes (immune cells) from the patient and then genetically modifying them so that they target cells in the body, such as tumor cells or other immune cells (B lymphocytes, which produce antibodies). CAR-T cell technology has already proven effective in fighting autoimmune diseases. cancer or the autoimmune diseases. In these latter cases, when these B lymphocytes attack the body's own cells, CAR-T cells can be used to eliminate these harmful B lymphocytes and force the body to produce new ones, which will no longer be programmed to attack the body. However, CAR-T cell production is complex and expensive, making this technology largely inaccessible. Researchers at Wuhan University of Science and Technology in China have just demonstrated a new method that teaches the body to produce its own CAR-T cells. Their approach, presented on September 2, 2026, in the New England Journal of Medicine, This could promote the democratization of CAR-T cell therapies by bypassing the entire process of producing these cells in the laboratory.

New genetic instructions to teach the body to produce its own CAR-T cells