Asthma treated in mice using offshoot of CAR T-cell cancer therapy
www.newscientist.com
May 28, 2024, 6:53 p.m.
It might be possible to effectively cure the most common form of asthma by using genetically engineered cells to kill off the rogue immune cells that trigger asthma attacks, a study in mice suggests. But making this kind of treatment affordable will be a major challenge, and its risks mean it would probably be given only to those who get life-threatening asthma attacks. “For most asthma patients, an inhaler is probably enough, however, approximately 250,000 people die from severe asthma annually,” says Min Peng at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. “[This] could be an option for those patients.”