Core Insights - The article discusses a groundbreaking study led by Professor Xu Huji from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University, which successfully utilized CRISPR gene-edited universal CAR-T cell therapy to treat three patients with refractory autoimmune diseases [2][3] - Professor Xu was recognized in Nature's 2024 list of top ten individuals for his contributions to the field, highlighting the collaboration with Huaxia Yingtai, founded by Professor Lin Xin from Tsinghua University, to conduct human trials for systemic lupus erythematosus [2] Research Findings - The study published in Nature Medicine details a phase 1 trial of allogeneic CD19-targeting T cells (STAR-T cells, YTS109) for treatment-refractory systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) with lupus nephritis (LN) [3] - The trial involved five patients who underwent lymphocyte depletion therapy followed by administration of STAR+ T cells at a dosage of 3×10⁶ cells per kilogram [8] - The primary endpoint was safety and the systemic lupus erythematosus response index 4 (SRI-4) at three months, with secondary endpoints including clinical remission and quality of life at six months [8] Results and Implications - Results indicated good tolerance for YTS109, with only mild cytokine release syndrome observed and no cases of graft-versus-host disease [10] - All five patients achieved SRI-4 response by the third month, with four patients showing a significant and sustained decrease in disease activity score from an average of 31.30 to 5.35 by the sixth month [10] - Quality of life assessments showed improvement for all patients, and kidney biopsies confirmed inflammation reduction and tissue repair, suggesting YTS109 as a promising treatment for severe, refractory SLE with LN [10]