CAR T-cell therapy induces remission in multiorgan IgG4-related disease with hepatobiliary involvement
IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a fibroinflammatory disorder in which IgG4<sup>+</sup> B cells and T cells interact to drive chronic organ inflammation. Patients with multiorgan involvement may become refractory to standard therapy, resulting in progressive organ damage and risk of organ failure. Here, we report a patient with treatment-refractory multiorgan IgG4-RD treated with CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells and describe the clinical and immunologic effects over more than 12 months of follow-up. A 60-year-old man with IgG4-RD involving the pancreas, hepatobiliary tract, and lungs, who was refractory to long-term immunosuppression, received autologous CD19-directed CAR T cells. Disease course was monitored longitudinally and multimodal immune profiling was performed on peripheral blood. CAR T cell therapy was well tolerated, with only grade 1 cytokine release syndrome, no neurotoxicity, and transient cytopenias without infections. Treatment induced B-cell aplasia lasting 6 months, while serum IgG4 levels normalized by month 8 and remained within the reference range thereafter. FAPI (fibroblast activation protein inhibitor) PET/CT demonstrated regression of fibroinflammatory activity, accompanied by improved lung function and quality of life. Immunosuppressive therapy was completely discontinued without disease flares for more than 12 months. B cell reconstitution consisted predominantly of naïve and transitional subsets. This was paralleled by a decline in T follicular helper cells and CD4<sup>+</sup> cytotoxic T cells and attenuation of fibro-inflammatory and B cell-mediated signaling networks on interactome analyses. In this treatment-refractory case of multiorgan IgG4-RD, CD19-directed CAR T cell therapy induced durable, treatment-free remission with normalization of serum IgG4 and improvement across multiple clinical endpoints. Multimodal immune profiling indicates that CAR T cells can reset the B cell compartment and dampen pathogenic T cell and stromal interactions, supporting prospective evaluation of CAR T cell therapy in IgG4-RD.
Authors
- Martin Böttcher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2911-8830)
- Denise Walther
- Dimitrios Mougiakakos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2817-6660)
- Dennis Löffler
- Tobias Goetze
- Martin Mikusko (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-5236-6642)
- Maciej Pech (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7140-6775)
- Kristin Reiche (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4452-4872)
- Carola Dröge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7634-5134)
- Jens Schreiber (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6795-2282)
- Nhu‐Nguyen Do (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6483-8062)
- Katrin Hippe
- Christina Katharina Kuhn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6705-9048)
- Dominic Borie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3569-2576)
- Verena Keitel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1383-7662)
- Michael C. Kreißl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5905-6015)
- Ulrike Köhl
Institutions
- Eureka Therapeutics (United States) (US)
- University Hospital Leipzig (DE)
- University Hospital Magdeburg (DE)
- Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (DE)
- Leipzig University (DE)
- Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Hepatology
- Published
- 2025-12-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2025.11.027
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- IgG4-Related and Inflammatory Diseases
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.34