Engineered T cell therapy for central nervous system injury [FACS-Tcells]

Traumatic injuries to the central nervous system (CNS) affect millions of people worldwide yet lack an effective treatment. These injuries contain infiltrating immune cells that can promote tissue repair and could be exploited for therapeutic benefit. Here, using single-cell RNA-sequencing of T cells infiltrating the injured CNS we demonstrate their clonal expansion and antigen specificity towards CNS derived self-peptides. We confirm the beneficial effect of these injury-associated autoimmune CD4+ T cells in murine models of optic nerve and spinal cord injury. Subsequently, using mRNA-based transient T cell receptor (TCR) reconstitution, we demonstrate a therapeutic T cell strategy to alleviate CNS injury. Treatment of CNS-injured mice with this therapy improved locomotion and alleviated histological signs of damage, through regulation of myeloid cells, without detrimental autoimmune side effects. This strategy provides a means of developing custom-designed T cell therapies for CNS injury, and possibly for other neurodegenerative disorders.