Safety and immunological proof-of-concept following treatment with tolerance-inducing cell products in patients with autoimmune diseases or receiving organ transplantation: A systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials.

In the past years, translational approaches have led to early-stage clinical trials assessing safety and efficacy of tolerance-inducing cell-based treatments in patients. This review aims to determine if tolerance-inducing cell-based therapies, including dendritic cells, regulatory T cells and mesenchymal stem cells, are safe in adult patients who underwent organ transplantation or in those with autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis, diabetes mellitus type 1, Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Immunological and clinical outcomes were reviewed, to provide evidence for proof-of-concept and efficacy. To summarize the current knowledge, a systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted. A total of 8906 records were reviewed by 2 independent assessors and 48 records were included in the final quantitative analysis. The overall frequency of serious adverse events was low: 0.018 (95% CI: 0.006-0.051). Immunological outcomes could not be assessed quantitatively because of heterogeneity in outcome assessments and description as well as lack of individual data. Most randomized controlled studies were at a medium risk of bias due to open-label treatment without masking of assessors and/or patients to the intervention. In conclusion, tolerance-inducing cell-based therapies are safe. We advocate for harmonization of study protocols of trials investigating cell-based therapies, adverse event reporting and systematic inclusion of immunological outcome measures in clinical trials evaluating tolerance-inducing cell-based treatment. Registration: PROSPERO, registration number CRD42020170557.