In a clinical trial led by Sara McCoy, MD, PhD, assistant professor, Rheumatology, the first person in the world has received a dose of a novel cell therapy to treat a symptom of Sjögren’s disease, an immune disorder that affects moisture-producing glands in the eyes, mouth and other parts of the body.

The patient, Julie McGowan, suffers from xerostomia or severe dry mouth, a cardinal symptom of Sjögren’s disease that limits the ability to eat and speak and is a major cause of tooth decay.

“The current standard of care is not addressing the root cause of dry mouth for these patients,” says Dr. McCoy, who is an expert in Sjögren’s and runs one of the Midwest’s few dedicated clinics for patients with the disease. “With this cell therapy, we are hopeful we can do more than offer temporary relief and give these people back these critical human functions.”

The novel immunotherapy uses a patient’s own stem cells, activated in the University of Wisconsin Program for Advanced Cell Therapy (UW PACT) cell manufacturing lab and injected into the patient’s salivary glands, to improve salivary gland function.

McGowan is the first research participant and patient in the Phase 0 trail, which is enrolling six patients and will be followed by a larger Phase 1 trial, which was approved in 2023 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Read the full story from the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

Read a related story from the Department of Medicine about Dr. McCoy’s work on clustering Sjögren’s symptoms.

Banner: Dr. McCoy in her lab. Credit: Clint Thayer/Department of Medicine.