CAR T-cell therapy successfully cleared anti-HLA antibodies to enable kidney transplantation in three highly sensitized patients.Treatment was well-tolerated and no donor-specific antibody rebound has been observed.This strategy has the potential to help thousands of patients in the U.S. currently awaiting kidney transplant.
Patients highly sensitized to HLA successfully underwent kidney transplantation after desensitization with the use of dual chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy.
In a safety run-in cohort of an ongoing phase I trial, two patients received lymphodepleting chemotherapy followed by an infusion of both CD19-targeted and B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-targeted CAR T cells to eliminate the cellular sources of preformed anti-HLA antibodies, reported Ali Naji, MD, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania's Smilow Center for Translational Research in Philadelphia, and colleagues in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
"This is the first demonstration that CAR T cells can be used not only to treat cancer, but also to help patients who previously had no opportunity to receive a compatible donor kidney," Naji said in a statement. "For patients who have spent years on the kidney transplant waiting list, this approach could be transformative."
