Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

@article{203398,
        author = {Naman Gupta},
        title = {Efficacy and Safety of CAR-T Cell Therapy in Autoimmune Diseases: A Secondary Analysis of Emerging Clinical Evidence},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {12},
        pages = {12347-12360},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=203398},
        abstract = {Autoimmune rheumatic diseases are chronic, heterogeneous disorders driven by autoreactive B and T cells, immune dysregulation, and progressive tissue damage. Although conventional treatments such as glucocorticoids, immunosuppressants, biologics, and hematopoietic transplantation have improved disease control, many patients still experience refractory disease, relapse, incomplete B-cell depletion, and treatment-limiting toxicity. These limitations have created strong interest in CAR-T cell therapy as a more targeted strategy capable of eliminating pathogenic B-cell populations and potentially resetting immune tolerance.
This review examines the mechanistic basis of CAR-T therapy, including receptor structure, CD19-directed targeting, immune reset, and cytokine-mediated T-cell persistence. It also summarizes manufacturing and clinical workflow considerations, recent advances in CAR-T engineering, and emerging applications in systemic and neurological autoimmune diseases. Current evidence suggests that CAR-T therapy may induce deep clinical responses in severe, treatment-resistant disease, with early reports showing remission in conditions such as SLE, systemic sclerosis, antisynthetase syndrome, ANCA-associated vasculitis, and selected neuroinflammatory disorders. At the same time, important limitations remain, including cytokine release syndrome, neurotoxicity, manufacturing complexity, high cost, and limited long-term data.
CAR-T therapy represents a promising next-generation immunotherapy for autoimmune disease, with the potential to move beyond symptom control toward durable immune reprogramming. However, broader clinical adoption will depend on stronger trial evidence, safer constructs, scalable manufacturing, and improved access.},
        keywords = {},
        month = {May},
        }