Scientists engineered CAR-T cell immunotherapy to target plaques of a key Alzheimer’s-causing protein in the brain called amyloid beta. In mice, they found that the engineered cells reduced the harmful amyloid plaques and improved the overall health of the brain tissue.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, a type of immunotherapy that leverages the immune system to combat diseases, is a powerful treatment option for certain cancers. The treatment relies on genetically modified T cells — a type of immune cell — to destroy cancer cells.

Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) in Israel and their collaborators have applied a similar approach to treating neurodegeneration. They **engineered CAR-T cells to target plaques of a key Alzheimer’s-causing protein in the brain called amyloid beta, offering a promising approach to treating the condition. In mice, they found that the engineered cells reduced the harmful amyloid plaques and improved the overall health of the brain tissue**.

The study is published Feb. 9 in PNAS.

For those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2530977123