Reprint of: Virus-Specific T Cells: Broadening Applicability

Abstract

Virus infection remains an appreciable cause of morbidity and mortality after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Although pharmacotherapy and/or antibody therapy may help prevent or treat viral disease, these drugs are expensive, toxic, and often ineffective due to primary or secondary resistance. Further, effective treatments are limited for many infections (eg, adenovirus, BK virus), which are increasingly detected after alternative donor transplants. These deficiencies in conventional therapeutics have increased interest in an immunotherapeutic approach to viral disorders, leading to adoptive transfer of virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (VSTs), which can rapidly reconstitute antiviral immunity post-transplantation without causing graft-versus-host disease. This review will explore how the VST field has improved outcomes for many patients with life-threatening viral infections after HSCT, and how to broaden applicability beyond the "patient-specific" products, as well as extending to other viral diseases even outside the context of HSCT.

Virus-Specific T Cells: Promising Adoptive T Cell Therapy Against Infectious Diseases Following Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

“…VSTs can help fast reconstruction of antiviral immunity in the immunosuppressed allo-HSCT recipient. VSTs can be derived from transplant donors or third-party donors 14 . This study discusses T cell changes during viral infection, conventional methods for producing virusspecific T cells, different stimulatory factors for T cell expansion, using virus-specific T cells in post HSCT recurrent infections, and clinical experiences in this field.…”