22/12/2025
Partilhado de Alexandre Branco !
Sempre atento! Obrigada
What if multiple sclerosis could be slowed or even stopped by re-engineering the immune system itself?
For decades, multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment has focused on managing attacks, not ending them. But this month, that long-standing boundary quietly shifted inside a London hospital.
A 37-year-old biology teacher, Emily Henders, became the first patient in the UK to receive CAR T-cell therapy for MS as part of a clinical trial at University College London Hospitals.
CAR T therapy once reserved for aggressive blood cancers works by rewiring a patient’s own immune cells. In MS, the immune system mistakenly attacks myelin, the protective coating around nerves. This trial uses engineered T cells to eliminate B cells, which are believed to drive that autoimmune attack, aiming to reset the immune system rather than suppress it indefinitely.
The therapy being tested, obecabtagene autoleucel, was developed at University College London and has already shown strong results in blood cancer with reduced toxicity. Now, researchers are asking a bold question: Could a single infusion lead to long periods of MS remission?
This early-phase trial is small, cautious, and experimental. But for patients whose disease continues to progress despite today’s best drugs, it represents something rare in MS care, a genuinely new frontier.
If successful, it wouldn’t just change treatment.
It would change what “living with MS” means.
If a one-time immune reset could halt MS progression, would you take the risk of an experimental therapy, or wait for certainty?
Source: University College London Hospitals (UCLH). First UK patient with multiple sclerosis trialling CAR T cell therapy at UCLH. Published 24 October 2025. UCLH News.
Disclaimer: The image used in this post is for illustration purposes only.
