CAR T-cell therapy puts severe, treatment-resistant rheumatoid arthritis into remission in first-of-its-kind Charite Berlin trial
In the first clinical trial of its kind, doctors at Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin gave six people with severe, treatment-refractory rheumatoid arthritis a single infusion of CD19 CAR T-cell therapy, a treatment originally built for blood cancers. Disease activity fell sharply in all six patients, and three were in medication-free remission after up to a year of follow-up, though responses varied and one patient later relapsed.
Doctors at Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin ran the world's first clinical trial testing CD19 CAR T-cell therapy, originally developed for blood cancers, in six patients with severe, treatment-refractory rheumatoid arthritis who had failed as many as eight prior biologic drugs over the past decade. Published in Nature Medicine as the first phase of the COMPARE trial, the results show disease activity fell sharply in every patient, and three remained in sustained, medication-free remission for up to a year, with autoantibody levels dropping and the treatment reaching disease-driving B cells hidden in bone marrow, lymph nodes and joint tissue. Responses varied: some patients had only a partial response and one relapsed after an initial remission. Side effects were reported as manageable, with only temporary, mild-to-moderate cytokine release syndrome and no serious complications. Researchers now plan a second trial phase with ten more patients comparing the approach directly against an already approved B-cell-targeting arthritis drug. The study was designed and initiated at Charite, with support from Kyverna Therapeutics, which the researchers say had no role in designing the study, analyzing data, or presenting results.