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Special Issue - Advanced Cell and Gene Therapy Strategies for Precision Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases

Theme issue editors:

Weisheng Guo¹, Xiaoyuan Chen²

School of Biomedical Engineering, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
Center for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (CNMMI), Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, Jinan, China

Autoimmune diseases affect approximately 8–10% of the global population and remain challenging to treat because conventional therapies primarily suppress pathogenic immune responses rather than restore immune tolerance. Although biologics and small-molecule inhibitors have improved disease control, relapse, systemic toxicity, and long-term immunosuppression remain important limitations. Recent advances in cell and gene therapy (CGT), including CAR-T cells, CAR-Treg cells, genome editing, nucleic-acid therapeutics, and antigen-specific immune modulation, are opening new possibilities for selective elimination or reprogramming of pathogenic immune populations and potentially achieving durable immune reset and tolerance.

Importantly, the rapid development of CGT creates a growing need for theranostic technologies that can determine where, when, and in whom these therapies act. Molecular imaging, cell tracking, targeted delivery, biomarker-guided patient selection, and longitudinal monitoring can provide critical information on therapeutic biodistribution, pharmacodynamics, immune reconstitution, efficacy, and safety. Recent studies integrating PET/optical reporter systems with engineered and gene-edited immune cells further demonstrate the emerging convergence of CGT and theranostics.

Against this background, this Special Issue, entitled “Advanced Cell and Gene Therapy Strategies for Precision Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases,” aims to highlight the convergence of therapeutic engineering and theranostic technologies for autoimmune diseases. The collection will bring together advances in the following interconnected areas:

1. Targeted Delivery for Cell and Gene Therapeutics
This section will cover viral and non-viral vectors, lipid nanoparticles, inflammation-responsive nanocarriers, and localized delivery systems designed to selectively target pathogenic immune cells or disease-relevant tissues. Topics will also include imaging-guided delivery, responsive therapeutic systems, and approaches for monitoring biodistribution and cargo delivery, including emerging strategies for in vivo generation of therapeutic immune cells.

2. Engineered Cellular Therapies and Cell Tracking
This section will focus on CAR-T, CAR-Treg, chimeric autoantibody receptor T cells, tolerogenic dendritic cells, mesenchymal stromal cells, and emerging allogeneic/off-the-shelf products for autoimmune diseases. Particular emphasis will be placed on molecular imaging and cell-tracking technologies for evaluating cellular biodistribution, persistence, activation, and therapeutic response.

3. Gene Therapy and Genome Editing
This section will cover CRISPR-Cas systems, base and prime editing, gene replacement, and emerging gene-regulation technologies for precision immune engineering. In addition to therapeutic development, contributions addressing delivery, off-target effects, immunogenicity, molecular imaging, and longitudinal monitoring of gene-engineered cells will be encouraged.

4. Immune Tolerance Induction and Theranostic Monitoring
This section will explore antigen-specific and immune-reset strategies aimed at restoring durable immune tolerance, including tolerogenic vaccines, regulatory immune cells, tolerogenic nanoparticles, and antigen-specific therapies. Particular attention will be given to biomarkers, molecular and cellular imaging, patient stratification, immune reconstitution, and predictors of durable remission.

Challenges and Future Perspectives
Despite rapid progress, the clinical translation of CGT for autoimmune diseases remains constrained by inefficient tissue targeting, safety and immunogenicity concerns, manufacturing complexity, and limited biomarkers for patient selection and therapeutic response. Integrating therapeutic engineering with molecular imaging, targeted delivery, cell tracking, and biomarker-guided monitoring may provide a more comprehensive theranostic framework for precision autoimmune therapy.

This Special Issue will complement, rather than duplicate, the 2020 Theranostics Special Issue on immunotheranostics by focusing specifically on autoimmune diseases and the emerging convergence of CGT with molecular imaging, targeted delivery, and treatment monitoring. By bringing together expertise in cell therapy, gene editing, nanomedicine, molecular imaging, and immune tolerance, the collection aims to highlight emerging strategies that can transform CGT from experimental approaches into safer, more precise, and clinically actionable therapies for autoimmune diseases.

Manuscripts for the special issue can be submitted online at https://www.thno.org/ms/submit (mark “Cell and Gene Therapy Special Issue" in the "Suggested reviewers" field to identify the paper).

Detailed formatting instructions, in particular, the formatting of references, can be found in https://www.thno.org/ms/author.

All inquiries should be directed to the guest editor.

Theme issue editors:

Xiaoyuan Chen (Professor, Center for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (CNMMI), Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, Jinan, China)

Weisheng Guo (Professor, School of Biomedical Engineering, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China)

Introduction of Professor Xiaoyuan Chen:
Prof. Xiaoyuan (Shawn) Chen received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Idaho (1999). After two postdocs at Syracuse University and Washington University in St. Louis, he started his Assistant Professorship in 2002 and then moved to Stanford in 2004. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2008. He then moved to NIH in 2009 and became a Senior Investigator and Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Imaging and Nanomedicine (LOMIN) at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), NIH. He was Nasrat Muzayyin Chair Professor in Medicine and Technology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (Department of Diagnostic Radiology), College of Design and Engineering (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering), and Faculty of Science (Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences), National University of Singapore until December 2025. He is now Professor of Center for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (CNMMI), Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, Shandong First Medical University and Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences. Prof. Chen has published over 1000 peer-reviewed papers (H-index: 219, total citations are close to 180,000 based on google scholar as of February 7, 2026) and numerous books and book chapters. He was on Clarivate’s annual list of Highly Cited Researchers for the past 8 years. He is the founding editor of journal Theranostics (current IF = 14.9). He was elected as AIMBE Fellow (2017), SNMMI Fellow (2020), Member of European Academy of Sciences (EurASc, 2024), Member of Academia Europaea (MAE, 2024), and Member of Singapore National Academy of Science (SNAS, 2024), received JBN Trailblazer Award (2023), SNMMI Michael J. Welch Award (2019), ACS Bioconjugate Chemistry Lecturer Award (2016), NIH Director’s Award (2014), and NIBIB Mentor Award (2012). He became a member of the Advanced Materials Hall of Fame (2023). He won Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Researcher of The Year Award 2025. He was also the Past President of Chinese American Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (CASNMMI), Past President of the Radiopharmaceutical Science Council (RPSC), Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), and Past President of the Chinese American Society of Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology (CASNN).

Introduction of Professor Weisheng Guo:
Dr. Weisheng Guo received his Bachelor's (2010) and Ph.D. (2015) degrees from Tianjin University. He subsequently conducted research as a visiting scholar at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States and served as an Assistant Researcher at the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China. Since 2018, he has been a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Biomedical Engineering, Guangzhou Medical University. Dr. Guo's research focuses on microenvironment-immunomodulatory nanocarriers for tumor immunotherapy and autoimmune tolerance. He has led multiple research projects, including grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Key R&D Program of China. To date, he has published over 80 academic papers as the first or corresponding author in prestigious international journals such as Nature Nanotechnology, Science Translational Medicine, Science Advances, Nature Communications, Nature Reviews Bioengineering, and Advanced Materials, accumulating over 8,000 citations. Dr. Guo has been selected for the Changjiang Scholar Program for Young Scholars (Ministry of Education), the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program (China Association for Science and Technology), and the Distinguished Young Scholars Program of Guangdong Province. His honors include the Youth Science and Technology Award from the Chinese Medical Association, the Alibaba DAMO Academy Young Scientist Finalist Award, the First Prize of the Science and Technology Achievement Award from the Guangdong Pharmacological Society, and the First Prize of the Tianjin Natural Science Award.