Anti-BCMA CAR-T cell therapy in relapsed/refractory chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy

Abstract

Background: Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) presents a significant therapeutic challenge, with up to 15% of patients being refractory to first-line treatments.

Methods: Anti-B cell maturation antigen chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy was applied to two patients with highly relapsed and refractory CIDP, followed by safety and efficacy evaluation. Multi-omics analyses were performed on samples of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) collected before and after infusion.

Findings: Both patients had no severe adverse events and achieved drug-free remission within 6 months post-CAR-T therapy. Patient 1 experienced disease recurrence 12 months post infusion following a severe infection of COVID-19, while patient 2 maintained remission over 24 months. Relapse was accompanied by reactivation of pathogenic B cells and recurrence of autoantibodies/peptides targeting axons or myelin. Metabolic reprogramming of B cells characterized by overglycolysis was linked to disease relapse, which could be modulated by regulatory factor X5.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates the safety and potential of anti-BCMA CAR-T cell therapy in treating refractory CIDP and provides insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying patient responses (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04561557).

Funding: Ministry of Science and Technology China Brain Initiative grant STI2030-Major Projects 2022ZD0204700 (to W.W.), National Natural Science Foundation of China grants 82371404 and 82071380 (to D.-S.T.) and 82471353 and 82271341 (to C.Q.), Knowledge Innovation Program of Wuhan Shuguang Project 2022020801020454 (to C.Q.), and Key Research and Development Program of Hubei Provincial Department of Science and Technology 2023BCB148 (to D.-S.T.). The clinical trial was funded by Nanjing IASO Biotechnology Co., Ltd.

Keywords: B cell maturation antigen; Translation to patients; chimeric antigen receptor T cell immunotherapy; refractory chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy; single-cell RNA sequencing.