A team at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) is successfully using foreign immune cells against the human JC virus and healing severely ill patients.
Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a rare but serious brain infection. It gradually destroys brain tissue and often leads to death within a few weeks. It is triggered by the human polyomavirus 2 – also known as the John Cunningham (JC) virus. In 2021, an interdisciplinary team at Hannover Medical School (MHH) led by Professor Dr. Thomas Skripuletz, senior physician at the Clinic for Neurology with Clinical Neurophysiology, found a groundbreaking way to stop the spread of the virus. Since then, the clinic has been offering treatment with new defense cells that can push back the virus in the bodies of those affected. These directly isolated allogeneic virus-specific DIAVIS-T cells come from the blood of healthy people who were infected with the virus. They have perfectly fitting defense cells from the group of white blood cells. The T lymphocytes recognize the attacking JC viruses as foreign to the body and initiate an immune response.
