haematology

For the first time, CAR-T cell therapy has been used to treat a patient with three different autoimmune diseases – autoimmune haemolytic anaemia, immune thrombocytopenia and antiphospholipid syndrome – which were life-threatening and had resisted years of treatment. The patient, who previously required daily blood transfusions, has been in remission for a year without the need for further treatment since then. The case report, published in the journal Med, suggests that these therapies may help treat complex and severe autoimmune diseases. 

In a study published in the journal Nature Medicine, a team of researchers from the National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) proposes a new cardiovascular risk factor to add to those already known. It is clonal hematopoiesis, a phenomenon caused by acquired mutations in blood stem cells. Furthermore, in a separate study published in the European Heart Journal, they suggest that the drug colchicine could serve to reduce its effects.