The First Clinical Trial of CAR-T therapy for Pediatric Patients with SLE Achieved Great Success at ZCH

ZCH has completed CAR-T therapy for 20 children with refractory systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in 2024, and all of these children have successfully stopped using hormones and all biological agents, which is news of a breakthrough in China, even the world. This means that these pediatric patients can get rid of the pain of long-term medication, like a butterfly emerging from the cocoon, and restart a new chapter of normal and healthy life.

SLE is an autoimmune disease in which a patient's immune system mistakenly attacks their own body tissues. According to the different clinical manifestation and the affected organs, SLE not only affects the skin, also causes damage to the kidney, blood system, cardiovascular system, digestive system, nervous system and other multiple systems and organs. The global prevalence of SLE is more than 40 per 100,000 people. It is estimated that there are about 1 million people with lupus erythematosus in China, ranking first in the world in total and second in incidence. This invisible killer, known as "butterfly disease", has brought a heavy burden to countless families.

The main therapies for SLE are hormone therapy to suppress the immune system, reduce inflammation and autoantibodies; the immunosuppressant to balance the body's immune response; biological agents targeting the specific cytokines or immune proteins. For a long time, the medical community has been looking for more efficient and more thorough treatment programs to accurately attack the root cause of SLE, while protecting the normal immune function of patients, but no cure has been found. 

The nephrology team of ZCH led by Professor Mao Jianhua has in-depth research on SLE for more than 30 years. Professor Mao determined to initiate the first clinical trial of CAR-T immunotherapy to treat pediatric patients with SLE based on his deep professional knowledge and rigorous scientific attitude.

CAR-T therapy is a new kind of immunotherapy. In the course of treatment, T cells extracted from the patients were genetically modified in the laboratory, make these T cells have the ability to recognize and attack abnormal B cells. After amplification, these "super T cells" are injected back into the patient and begin to accurately identify and quickly attack abnormal B cells hiding in the blood.

Professor Mao said, “our nephrology team is very excited about the CAR-T treatment results. In the future, the universal CART therapy is going to be tried, which uses CAR-T cells provided by healthy people. This means that once patients are eligible, they can receive treatment directly, without waiting. At the same time, due to the simplification of the production process, the treatment cost will also be significantly reduced, so that more patients can afford this advanced treatment means.”