Nebraska Medicine uses cutting-edge cell therapy to treat lupus for first time
A decade of suffering has given way to a new lease on life for an Omaha mother with lupus.
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - As lupus robbed her of life’s comforts for more than a decade, a young Omaha woman put on a brave face.
“I got my official diagnosis when I was a senior in high school,” said Lauren Koop Daughtrey. “I was sleeping all the time. The joint pain was so bad, I’d roll out of bed and I was almost crawling.”
Even though the current crop of medication never stopped the lupus flare-ups, Lauren couldn’t stop living. She started a family. Her twins, a boy and a girl, are 17 months old.
“This summer was a test of the study because my husband was on deployment, so I was by myself and they’re pretty heavy,” Lauren said.
This spring, the 28-year-old enrolled in a clinical trial in Omaha. For the last several years, Nebraska Medicine has been on the cutting edge of CAR T-cell therapy for cancer. Lauren is the patient for the therapy’s first trail on lupus.
“We take what is a powerful therapy against lymphomas and acute leukemias and we think, in the right situation, perhaps the risk and benefit is there that it may work in conditions like lupus,” said Dr. Matt Lunning with Nebraska Medicine.
To conduct CAR T-cell therapy, the patient’s blood is collected and T-cells are isolated. in this case, the T-cells came from a donor. The cells are then reengineered in a lab and infused into the patient.
For Lauren, the T-cells are now acting as “hunters” of her B-cells, which make antibodies and fight infection. But for those with lupus, like Lauren, the B-cells get out of control. This therapy aims to calm down her overactive immune system.
Lauren, who couldn’t shake her pain for years, just hit the six-month mark since starting the CAR T-cell therapy.
“[The pain] is gone,” Lauren said. “It’s wild. I didn’t think I was going to get this emotional. I can’t believe it since it’s my body. It’s amazing.”
The most remarkable thing for Lauren? When asked about any lingering pain, she celebrated the fact that she now has what she refers to as “normal back pain” — from carrying around her two adorable, and chunky, twin babies.
Ultimately, Lauren feels incredibly lucky, and her story could be a giant source of hope for others suffering from lupus.
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