Recently, Professor Jiang Xinyi’s team from the School of Pharmacy, in collaboration with research groups led by Professor Zhang Cheng and Professor Yang Jianmin at Qilu Hospital, achieved a significant breakthrough in cardiovascular immunotherapy. Their study, titled “Engineered CAR-monocytes coordinate fibrosis clearance and cardiac regeneration following myocardial infarction”, was published in Cell Stem Cell. The work established a multifunctional, synergistic monocyte-based therapeutic strategy for myocardial infarction (MI) that simultaneously addressed multiple pathological processes in post-infarction cardiac remodeling. This approach attenuated heart failure progression and significantly improved survival rates in preclinical MI models, offering a reversible treatment strategy for MI with broad application in other fibrotic diseases.

Acute MI remains the leading cause of cardiovascular-related death and disability worldwide. Current mainstream clinical interventions successfully restore blood supply to the infarcted vessel but fail to reverse the two core pathological processes driving disease progression: massive cardiomyocyte death and excessive fibrosis. These unaddressed processes are the primary drivers of post-MI heart failure and adverse cardiovascular events.

To address this unmet need, the research team developed a synergistic treatment system utilizing monocytes as the cellular chassis with dual functions of lesion clearance and tissue regeneration, overcoming the limitations of existing cell therapies that target only a single pathological mechanism. In preclinical studies, this strategy significantly inhibited pathological fibrosis in the infarcted region while effectively promoting cardiomyocyte proliferation and angiogenesis. Consequently, the therapy reversed pathological cardiac remodeling and markedly improved overall cardiac function. The team further systematically characterized the multidimensional regulatory effects of this therapy on the MI microenvironment and its underlying mechanisms. Preliminary in vivo safety evaluations were also completed, collectively demonstrating a favorable biosafety profile and strong potential for future clinical translation.

Professor Zhang Cheng, Professor Jiang Xinyi, and Professor Yang Jianmin of Shandong University are the co-corresponding authors of this paper. Doctoral students Wu Zhenguo and Zou Xiaohan from Qilu Hospital, along with Researcher Chen Chen from the School of Pharmacy, are co-first authors. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Research and Development Program of China, the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, and the Key Research and Development Plan of Shandong Province.