Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jan 4;45(1):18.
doi: 10.1007/s00296-024-05772-5.

Safety and efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy in patients with autoimmune diseases: a systematic review

Lakshmi Kattamuri  1 , Bhavesh Mohan Lal  2 , Nikhil Vojjala  3 , Mansi Jain  4 , Kunal Sharma  1 , Siddharth Jain  5 , Samer Al Hadidi  6
Affiliations

Safety and efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy in patients with autoimmune diseases: a systematic review

Lakshmi Kattamuri et al. Rheumatol Int. .

Abstract

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy has revolutionized the treatment of various hematological malignancies. Recently, CAR-T has been used in refractory auto-immune diseases with initial encouraging results. In this systematic review, we examined the safety and efficacy of CAR-T in patients with refractory auto-immune diseases. PubMed/Medline, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Scopus search revealed 1552 articles, of which 24 were included for the final analysis. 80 patients with autoimmune diseases received CAR-T cell therapy, of which 52 patients had systemic lupus erythematosus, 16 patients had systemic sclerosis, 7 patients had idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, 2 patient had anti-phospholipid antibody syndrome, 2 patients had rheumatoid arthritis, and 1 patient had Sjogren's disease. 44 patients got CD-19 CAR-T and 36 patients got BCMA/CD-19 compound CAR-T. All the patients achieved an immunosuppression-free state at the last follow-up. Of the 47 patients with follow-up data, 79 patients developed cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and 4 patients developed neurotoxicity. None of the patients had fatal adverse events with CAR-T cell therapy. CAR-T appears to be safe and effective in patients with refractory autoimmune diseases. Future studies are crucial to further validate these findings, explore long-term outcomes, and refine the treatment protocols to enhance efficacy and safety.

Keywords: Autoimmune disorders; CAR-T Cell therapy; Cytokine release syndrome; Hematologic malignancies; Systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

References

    1. Wang L, Wang FS, Gershwin ME (2015) Human autoimmune diseases: a comprehensive update. J Intern Med 278(4):369–395 - PubMed - DOI
    1. Schett G, Mackensen A, Mougiakakos D (2023) CAR T-cell therapy in autoimmune diseases. Lancet 402(10416):2034–2044 - PubMed - DOI
    1. Edwards JC, Szczepanski L, Szechinski J, Filipowicz-Sosnowska A, Emery P, Close DR et al (2004) Efficacy of B-cell-targeted therapy with rituximab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. N Engl J Med 350(25):2572–2581 - PubMed - DOI
    1. Merrill JT, Neuwelt CM, Wallace DJ, Shanahan JC, Latinis KM, Oates JC et al (2010) Efficacy and safety of rituximab in moderately-to-severely active systemic lupus erythematosus: the randomized, double-blind, phase II/III systemic lupus erythematosus evaluation of rituximab trial. Arthritis Rheum 62(1):222–233 - PubMed - PMC - DOI
    1. Treppo E, Binutti M, Agarinis R, De Vita S, Quartuccio L (2021) Rituximab induction and maintenance in ANCA-associated vasculitis: state of the art and future perspectives. J Clin Med 10:17 - DOI

Publication types

Substances

LinkOut - more resources