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When Jonathan Epstein first looked through the microscope to examine the results of a study using CAR T cells in mice, he didn’t know whether the sample came from a treated animal or a control. But right away, “it was just so clear,” he says. All the mice had started out with cardiac fibrosis, a stiffening of the heart tissue, and the engineered immune cells were designed to target and kill fibroblasts causing the dysfunction. What he observed in some samples was that the fibrosis was quickly disappearing—a clear sign the treatment was working. “[We did] a high-five over the microscope.”
Epstein and his team describe their results in Nature today (September 11), the first proof-of-concept of applying the cancer immunotherapy to cardiac fibrosis, for which there are no other therapeutic options.
“The idea that cardiovascular disease, the first cause of death in the US ...
