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Genetically engineered expression of tumor-specific single chain antibody chimeric receptors (ch-Rec) on human T lymphocytes endow these cells with the parental monoclonal antibody (mAb) dictated tumor specificity and may be useful for clinical immuno-genetherapy. Therefore it was of importance to assess how the densities of tumor-specific receptors and tumor associated antigens (TAA), respectively, affect primary human T lymphocyte functions in relation to target cell susceptibilities to lysis. We therefore studied the functional balance between ch-Rec densities on human T lymphocytes and TAA on tumor cells. The gene construct encoding a ch-Rec derived from (1) a renal carcinoma cell (RCC) specific mouse mAb (G250), and (2) the human signal transducing Fc(⑀)RI ␥-chain was used. To obtain chRec HIGH-POS and ch-Rec LOW-POS T lymphocytes, two distinct retroviral vectors were used to introduce the gene constructs into primary human T lymphocytes. Levels of ch-Rec-

The clinical benefit of adoptive transfer of MHC-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes(CTL)

Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is associated with the acceleration of transplant vascular sclerosis (TVS) and chronic allograft rejection (CR). HCMV-negative recipients of latently HCMV infected donor grafts are at highest risk for developing CMV-disease. Using a rat heart transplant CR model, we have previously shown that acute rat CMV (RCMV) infection following transplantation significantly accelerates both TVS and CR. Here, we report that RCMV-naïve recipients of heart allografts from latently RCMV-infected donors undergo acceleration of CR with similar kinetics as acutely infected recipients. In contrast to acutely infected recipients, treatment of recipients of latently infected donor hearts with ganciclovir did not prevent CR or TVS. We observed the formation of tertiary lymphoid structures (TLOs) containing macrophages and T-cells in latently infected hearts prior to transplantation but not in uninfected rats. Moreover, pathway analysis of gene expression data from allografts from latently infected donors, indicated an early and sustained production of TLO-associated genes compared to allografts from uninfected donors. We conclude that RCMV-induced TLO formation and alteration of donor tissue T-cell profiles prior to transplantation in part mediate the ganciclovir-insensitive rejection of latently infected donor allografts transplanted into naïve recipients by providing a scaffold for immune activation.

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