Impaired Direct Priming of CD8 T Cells by Donor-Derived Cytomegalovirus Following Kidney Transplantation

Shazia Shabir, Baksho Kaul, Annette Pachnio, Gemma D. Banham, Helen Smith, Sourabh Chand, S. Jham, Lorraine Harper, Simon Ball, Afsar Rahbar,

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology · 2013 · 25 citations · 35 references

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Abstract

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection increases the risk of complications after renal transplantation, but the mechanisms controlling donor-derived infection are not adequately characterized. Here, we assessed the risk of clinically significant CMV disease in donor-seropositive, recipient-seropositive (D+R+) renal transplantation and examined recipients' CMV antigen-specific cellular immune responses primed directly by donor cells. In a retrospective cohort of 569 patients administered standardized basiliximab-tacrolimus-mycophenolate-corticosteroid immunosuppressive therapy, CMV disease rates increased in D+R+ serostatus pairings compared with D-R+ pairings (hazard ratio [HR], 2.61; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.36 to 5.01; P=0.004) and associated with increased donor-recipient HLA mismatch in the D+R+ group (HR [per class 1 mismatch], 1.43; 95% CI, 1.12 to 1.82]; P=0.02). D+R+ and D+R- transplants in which the donor and recipient differentially expressed at least one HLA class I allele were followed prospectively from the time of transplantation. During the first year after transplantation, four of eight seropositive recipients and one of three seronegative recipients displayed peripheral blood CD8+ T cell responses to CMV presented by recipient-specific HLA. Notably, no recipients mounted responses to CMV presented by donor-specific HLA, despite the detection of CMV antigen expression in all seropositive donor organs examined (n=10), suggesting that the allograft of Class I HLA-mismatched seropositive donors is inaccessible to CD8+ T cell responses. Finally, pretransplant assays of anti-CMV cellular immunity predicted post-transplant CMV replication less accurately in D+R+ pairings than in D-R+ pairings, possibly reflecting in vitro assay specificity for recipient, rather than donor, HLA. These findings are relevant to the clinical management and immunologic understanding of donor-transmitted viral infection.

References

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