MS trial tests red blood cells to retrain immunity

At the University of Zurich and University Hospital of Zurich, the first patients have received an experimental multiple sclerosis treatment built from their own blood. Researchers attach specific protein constituents to red blood cells, return those cells to the body, and report good safety and tolerability in the opening clinical trial.

Multiple sclerosis is driven largely by T lymphocytes, immune cells that normally fight infections and tumors but can mistakenly attack the brain and spinal cord. Existing approved treatments suppress the immune system broadly. The Zurich team is instead trying to redirect the mistaken response toward the modified red blood cells, so the immune system learns tolerance to the attached antigens.

The mechanism depends on what happens after the cells are returned. They are absorbed and broken down like aging red blood cells, primarily in the liver and spleen, where their antigens are presented in a way intended to promote tolerance. The study reports promising mechanisms of action, but it does not yet show whether patients’ disease activity or symptoms improve.

The intended change is targeted treatment rather than general immune suppression. For people with MS, that could eventually mean addressing the cells responsible for the autoimmune attack while leaving more of the protective immune response intact. For now, the evidence covers the first clinical hurdle: safety and tolerability, not efficacy.

Andreas Lutterotti led the study at the University of Zurich, with researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and other institutions. After more than two decades of development, the team has created Cellerys to pursue the costly next stages; a future efficacy trial depends on securing funding. The researchers say the approach could also be adapted to some of the more than 100 autoimmune diseases, but that broader use remains a possibility, not a clinical result.