Is It Feasible to Use CMV-Specific T-Cell Adoptive Transfer as Treatment Against Infection in SOT Recipients?

Abstract

During the last decade, many studies have demonstrated the role of CMV specific T-cell immune response on controlling CMV replication and dissemination. In fact, it is well established that transplanted patients lacking CMV-specific T-cell immunity have an increased occurrence of CMV replication episodes and CMV-related complications. In this context, the use of adoptive transfer of CMV-specific T-cells has been widely investigated and applied to Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant patients and may be useful as a therapeutic alternative, to reconstitute the CMV specific T-cell response and to control CMV viremia in patients receiving a transplantation. However, only few authors have explored the use of T-cell adoptive transfer in SOT recipients. We propose a novel review in which we provide an overview of the impact of using CMV-specific T-cell adoptive transfer on the control of CMV infection in SOT recipients, the different approaches to stimulate, isolate and expand CMV-specific T-cells developed over the years and a discussion of the possible use of CMV adoptive cellular therapy in this SOT population. Given the timeliness and importance of this topic, we believe that such an analysis will provide important insights into CMV infection and its treatment/prevention.

Immunotherapeutic approaches in EBV-associated nasopharyngeal carcinoma

“…Many clinical trials showed that ACT with EBV-specific CTLs prevented and treated PTLDs in patients with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation ( 98 – 102 ). EBV-specific CTLs also effectively treated PTLDs in patients with solid organ transplants that were on high immunosuppression regimens ( 93 – 95 , 103 , 104 ). These results have broadened the application of ACT in EBV-associated cancers, and both EBNA1 and LMP1 were the targets for the amplification of EBV-specific CTLs in the majority of studies ( 65 , 105 – 111 ).…”

Editorial: Cytomegalovirus Pathogenesis and Host Interactions

“…An alternative treatment approach for HCMV disease, besides anti-viral drugs, is the adoptive transfer of CD8+ Tcells (Mui et al, 2010;Garcia-Rios et al, 2021). Renzaho et al demonstrate that CD8+ T-cells not only prevent lethal MCMV disease by limiting viral spread in vital organs, but also control infection of stromal cells in the bone marrow.…”

“…An alternative treatment approach for HCMV disease, besides anti-viral drugs, is the adoptive transfer of CD8+ T-cells ( Mui et al., 2010 ; Garcia-Rios et al., 2021 ). Renzaho et al.…”

Isolation of Functional SARS-CoV-2 Antigen-Specific T-Cells with Specific Viral Cytotoxic Activity for Adoptive Therapy of COVID-19

“…We hypothesize that lymphocytes from convalescent patients may contain SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cells, which can be purified and used for adoptive therapy using a cell production method developed to purify virus-specific cells. Among the methods used, the CliniMACS Prodigy system facilitates the culture and purification of primary cells, such as CAR-T-cells, previously used to treat hematological malignancies [24,25], or regulatory T-cells to attenuate graft-versus-host disease [26]. Furthermore, the CliniMACS Prodigy system has been widely used to generate specific T-cells upon stimulation with viral antigens from CMV or the Epstein-Barr virus [25,[27][28][29].…”

“…Among the methods used, the CliniMACS Prodigy system facilitates the culture and purification of primary cells, such as CAR-T-cells, previously used to treat hematological malignancies [24,25], or regulatory T-cells to attenuate graft-versus-host disease [26]. Furthermore, the CliniMACS Prodigy system has been widely used to generate specific T-cells upon stimulation with viral antigens from CMV or the Epstein-Barr virus [25,[27][28][29]. In addition, in the last decade, few studies have evidenced the stimulation of antigen-specific T-cells upon stimulation with viral-specific peptides [30,31].…”