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Alemtuzumab conditioning for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) patients with non-malignant diseases is effective in preventing both acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) when it is added it to the stem cell infuscate to deplete donor T cells.
There are other chemotherapeutic drugs also used to induce T-cell depletion in allo-HSCT recipients. Regardless, some autologous T cells escape depletion after allo-HSCT and may contribute to T-cell chimerism pattern after transplant. The reasons for, and consequences of, T-cell chimerism are not fully understood.
Recently, the relationship between mixed T-cell chimerism and viral infection was discussed by Nadaf et al. at the 47th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.1 Their study aimed to identify the influence of virus infection on post-HSCT, lineage-specific (CD3/CD15) leukocyte mixed chimerism.
Patient selection was based on children with genetic diseases, aged 1–16 years, receiving alemtuzumab conditioning in donor (family and unrelated) marrow transplant, monitored with lineage-specific chimerism.
The demographic and clinical characterization of patients and donors are given in Table 1. Briefly, a total of 130 allo-HSCT-treated patients were selected, where 107 were engrafted, 12 experienced graft loss, and 11 patients died.
Table 1. Characteristics of patients and donors*
BM, bone marrow; Bu-Flu, busulfan–fludarabine; CI, confidence interval; FT, fludarabine–treosulfan; HLA, human leukocyte antigen; MAC, high intensity myeloablative conditioning; OR, odds ratio; PBSC, peripheral blood stem cells; RIC, reduced intensity conditioning. |
||||||
Pretransplant factors |
Engrafted |
Graft loss |
OR |
95% CI |
p value |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sex, n |
Male |
61 |
7 |
0.9 |
0.31–2.9 |
0.9 |
Median age at transplant, years (range) |
5.2 |
3.5 |
|
|
|
|
Diagnosis, n |
Metabolic |
30 |
4 |
|
|
|
Aplastic |
28 |
2 |
1.7 |
4.3–8.4 |
0.7 |
|
Donor type, n |
Family |
52 |
5 |
1.32 |
0.4–3.9 |
0.76 |
HLA disparity, n |
Matched (10/10) |
100 |
11 |
1.29 |
0.10–9.0 |
0.58 |
Stem cell source, n |
PBSC |
17 |
2 |
0.94 |
0.2–4.6 |
0.99 |
Conditioning, n |
MAC-Bu-Flu |
25 |
2 |
|
|
0.17 |
The mean follow-up period for the study was 2.8 years post-transplant. The authors reported the following key results.1
Conditioning with alemtuzumab yields exceptionally low rates of acute GvHD and chronic GvHD after allo-HSCT. Mixed T-cell chimerism is strongly linked with CMV viremia and positive CMV serology. Expansion of autologous virus specific CD8 T cells and the resulting mixed T-cell chimerism does not impact outcome in allo-HSCT recipients.
Therefore, only myeloid chimerism should be used to assess stem cell engraftment and graft function.
References
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