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Activated fibroblasts cause cardiac fibrosis in response to cardiac muscle injury (e.g., from hypertension); such fibrosis can lead to heart failure. A team from the University of Pennsylvania used a combination of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy and messenger RNA (mRNA) “vaccine” therapy, both pioneered at that institution, to treat cardiac fibrosis in mice.
The team created an mRNA enclosed in lipid nanoparticles that are taken up by T cells; the mRNA makes a CAR designed to recognize an antigen on the surface of activated fibroblasts. The CAR allows T cells to destroy these activated fibroblasts. In mice with experimentally induced cardiac injury, this treatment greatly reduced cardiac fibrosis, increased cardiac muscle mas…