New immune cells to treat childhood autoimmune kidney and lupus diseases

This trial is testing a new type of cell therapy called anti-CD19/BCMA CAR-NK cells, which are immune cells that have been specially engineered in the laboratory to recognize and attack the specific cells causing autoimmune disease. Rather than using the patient's own T cells (which are expensive and can cause serious side effects), this treatment uses natural killer cells — a different type of immune cell that may be safer and easier to produce. The study is recruiting children with severe lupus, drug-resistant kidney disease, or IgA nephropathy that hasn't responded to standard treatments.

Many children with severe autoimmune diseases like lupus and resistant kidney disease don't get better with current treatments, and they face serious complications including kidney failure and disability. Similar cell therapies have shown promise in treating autoimmune diseases, but standard approaches are expensive, hard to access, and can cause dangerous side effects — so researchers are testing this new medication as a potentially safer and more available alternative.