Development of Genetically Modified Ro60-Specific Regulatory T Cells as Cell Therapy for Sjögren’s Disease

Sometimes the body’s defense system, meant to protect us from germs, mistakenly attacks our own tissues. This can lead to autoimmune diseases like Sjögren’s disease, which causes dryness, fatigue, and pain. Normally, special immune cells called regulatory T cells stop this from happening, but when they don’t work properly, disease develops. Current treatments only manage symptoms. In this study, I used CRISPR gene editing to develop a cell therapy by improving these T cells so they can better recognize a protein linked to Sjögren’s Disease, called Ro60. This engineered cell therapy could offer a precise, long-lasting treatment that safely calms the immune system.