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CHAPTER 14
Immunotherapy post-transplant
*

14.1
Immunotherapy post-transplant *
for infections

M. Kapp, G.U. Grigoleit, H. Einsele

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CHAPTER 14.1 Immunotherapy post-transplant for infections

1. Introduction
The main issue regarding immunotherapy of infections after allogeneic haematopoietic
stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection.
Therefore, this Chapter will focus on the experiences made with immunotherapy for
HCMV infection. However, the techniques described here have been applied to
immunotherapy of other viral infections such as adenovirus and EBV infection.

2. HCMV infection after allogeneic stem cell transplantation

HCMV infection continues to be one of the most important and life threatening
complications after allogeneic HSCT.
To improve T-cell immunity against HCMV and other infections in bone marrow
transplant patients different strategies have been explored. In general, HCMV-specific
T-cells can be selected from the donor, and be transferred to the patient either with
or without in vitro expansion, or the HCMV-specific T-cells can be activated and
expanded in vivo by stimulation with antigen presenting cells (APCs) loaded with
specific proteins or peptides.

3. Isolation and infusion of HCMV specific CD8+ T-cells

Riddell et al. and Walter et al. have demonstrated that adoptive immunotherapy by
transfer of HCMV-specific CD8+ T-cell clones into patients at risk of HCMV disease
protected the patients from HCMV-related complications (1, 2). 1-2 x 109 HCMV-
specific CD8+ T-cells were administered and these cells were detectable in patients
blood for at least 8 weeks. Patients were protected against HCMV disease although
HCMV-specific CTLs declined progressively in patients who did not develop a
concomitant HCMV-specific CD4+ TH response.
Analyses using the new technologies developed for determining antigen-specific T-
cells (e.g. intracellular cytokine staining or staining with tetrameric HLA Class I
/peptide complexes) have contributed to a substantial improvement in our
understanding of the role and function of immune responses in vivo. The use of
peptideHLA multimers facilitates the visualisation and isolation of antigen-specific
CTLs (3). CD8+-T-cells that bind multimeric HLA complexes can be isolated to high
purity using magnetic beads or FACS sorting (46). Newly developed multimeric HLA
complexes, binding reversibly to the T-cell receptor, offer the opportunity of
selecting unmanipulated antigen specific CTLs (7). Thus, phenotypical analysis with
MHC-peptide multimers, functional assays as well as multimer-based enrichment
protocols can now be used in the setting of adoptive T-cell therapy. The transfer
of HCMV-specific CTLs freshly isolated from peripheral blood might be superior to

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the in vitro expansion and manipulation of T-cells. The in vitro expansion may increase
the expression of the pro-apoptotic FAS molecule (CD95) and reduce telomere
length of specific T-cells, leading to a shorter survival of the adoptively transferred
T-cells. In addition, the prolonged in vitro culture of T-cells is cumbersome when
performed under GMP conditions (requirements for sterility, media, cytokines,
serum, etc.).

4. Adoptive transfer of HCMV-specific CD4+ TH-cells for the treatment

of HCMV infection
The safety and efficacy of cellular therapy with HCMV-specific CD8+ lymphocytes in
immunocompromised patients has been documented. These studies demonstrated
the role of HCMV-specific CD4+ cells in maintaining an HCMV-specific CTL response.
Several studies have outlined the significance of antiviral effector functions of TH
cells in maintaining CTL responses after adoptive transfer and their capacity to
produce antiviral cytokines (8).
We therefore evaluated the infusion of HCMV-specific CD4+ TH-cells to treat patients
with HCMV viraemia resistant to antiviral chemotherapy after allogeneic HSCT (9).
The patients enrolled in this study showed a documented lack of an HCMV-specific
CD4+ TH and an HCMV-specific CTL response. We generated HCMV-specific T-cell lines
for adoptive transfer by 4 repetitive weekly stimulations of donor lymphocytes with
HCMV lysate in vitro. No side effects occurred during and after infusion of the cells,
even in patients receiving their graft from a donor, mismatched in 1 to 3 HLA antigens
with the stem cell graft recipient. Reconstitution of HCMV-specific CTL responses
could be demonstrated following the transfusion of HCMV-specific CD4+ T-cell lines.
Five out of 8 patients cleared the viral infection following a single infusion of HCMV-
specific CD4+ T-cells, one other patient after a second infusion. These findings show
that HCMV-specific adoptive immune transfer is a therapeutic option in patients with
reactivated HCMV-infection after HSCT. Even the infusion of low numbers of CD4+
HCMV-specific T-cell lines was found to be successful in some of these patients.
Another issue which has to be addressed is the role of CD4+ T-cells in the direct control
of infection. It has been shown that highly differentiated CD4+ T-cells, specific for
HCMV pp65, mediate antiviral effector functions (10): HCMV-specific CD27- CD4+ T-
cells degranulate when they encounter a cognate antigen and the number of CD4+
T-cells which contain granzyme A, granzyme B and perforin raises during the
maturation process of these cells. Furthermore, target cells bearing a distinct
HCMV pp65-derived MHC Class II-restricted epitope were killed by CD4+ T-cells from
an individual in which degranulation occurred in a subset of cells with a high
frequency of perforin. Overall, it could be demonstrated that mature HCMV-specific

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CHAPTER 14.1 Immunotherapy post-transplant for infections

CD4+ T-cells have functional features which equal antiviral CD8+ T lymphocytes.
Taken together, the transfer of HCMV-specific CD4+ T-cells is not only a promising
option for providing helper cell support for pre-existing HCMV-specific CTLs but
may also exert effector functions which directly contribute to a persistent virus
control.

5. Infusion of HCMV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells

The opportunity to generate cellular products which contain both CD4+ and CD8+
arises from the provision of selection protocols based upon cytokine secretion. Our
group has performed a study which avoids the restrictions in the generation of virus-
specific T-cell lines for adoptive transfer into allogeneic HSCT recipients without
affecting the function of the generated T-cell lines (11). The IFN-g secretion assay,
which conforms to current GMP-regulations, was used for the enrichment of virus-
specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells. One important step to stimulate both cytotoxic and
helper cells in one procedure was to evaluate the optimal stimulus. First, we
compared HCMV-Ag only in eliciting a combined HCMV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-
cell response to concomitant usage of HLA matched HCMV-specific MHC-I epitopes
and HCMV-Ag. Stimulation of HCMV-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells was similarly
effective when using HCMV-antigen compared to the stimulation with HCMV-
antigen and peptides, as assessed by intracellular cytokine staining (ICC).
The number of HCMV-specific T-cells required for an effective adoptive transfer and
their composition in respect to CD4+/CD8+ ratio required for either prevention
and/or treatment of HCMV-viraemia after allogeneic stem cell transplantation is not
yet defined. The Seattle group and others demonstrated that adoptive transfer of
up to 5 x 109/m2 CD8+ T-cell clones could reconstitute HCMV-specific immune
responses (1, 2). In our hands, the combined generation of HCMV-specific CD4+ and
CD8+ cells resulted in an average of 1.3 x 108 HCMV-specific stimulated, selected
and expanded T-cells from 8/8 randomly selected HCMV-seropositive donors in 10
days from one single 500 mL collection of blood, utilising feeder cells, media and
cytokines compatible with current GMP regulations. The specificity of this GMP-grade
product could be clearly demonstrated by detection of intracellular cytokine
production after antigen-specific stimulus and lysis of HCMV-infected target cells
by the HCMV-directed CTL lines. Furthermore, we were able to show that the
generated HCMV-specific T-cells do not represent terminally differentiated CD4+ and
CD8+ T-cells as stimulation led to several cell divisions as demonstrated by dilution
of CFSE dye and a corresponding cell expansion. Thus, adoptive transfer of the
generated T-cells into HSCT recipients may allow further in vivo expansion, if T-cells
are stimulated by HCMV-Ag presenting cells in vivo.

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6. Vaccination with HCMV peptide loaded DCs

Mature dendritic cells (DCs) are the most potent APCs, with the ability to initiate
and boost primary immune responses. Mature DCs can be generated in vitro from
peripheral blood monocytes by culturing in the presence of granulocyte-macrophage
colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin 4 (IL-4) and tumour necrosis factor
a (TNF-a). Vaccination with peptide pulsed DCs was shown to be feasible and
effective in inducing tumour-specific T-cell responses and was able to induce
regression of metastatic disease in a minority of patients.
In our trial (12) HCMV seropositive patients who underwent an allogeneic-HSCT
with a graft from a HCMV seronegative donor received a vaccination with HCMV
peptide loaded mature DCs in addition to the routinely applied pre-emptive
antiviral chemotherapy. The DCs were pulsed with nonamer peptides from the HCMV
protein pp65, restricted by the HLA-class I elements A1, A2, A3, A11, A68 and B7.
The DC vaccination study was designed as a phase I/II trial. The primary objectives
were to evaluate tolerability and safety. Therefore, the acute local and systemic
side effects of the vaccination procedure were analysed as well as the induction
or aggravation of acute or chronic graft versus host disease (GvHD) or any other
autoimmune phenomenon. As a secondary objective, the efficacy of the DC
vaccination was documented by analysing the HCMV specific T-cell response and
the long-term control of HCMV infection. Because all the patients with HCMV
infection or reactivation at the time of vaccination received additional anti-viral
chemotherapy, the short-term control could not be analysed. Our DC vaccination
trial recruited HCMV seropositive HSCT recipients, who are at a high risk for HCMV
disease without a HCMV specific CTL response. Patients at high risk for HCMV disease
were defined as patients with prolonged (more than 4 weeks) antiviral chemotherapy
prior to day 100, patients receiving a T-cell depleted (in vivo by ATG or ex vivo by
CD34 selection) graft and HCMV seropositive patients with a seronegative stem cell
donor.
In all patients, DC vaccination was well tolerated without any local or systemic
side effects. No induction or aggravation of acute or chronic GvHD was observed
in any of the patients receiving DC vaccination for chemotherapy refractory HCMV
infection. DC vaccination was shown to induce HCMV specific T-cell responses with
antiviral activity even in a patient who was infected by a HCMV strain resistant
to ganciclovir, foscavir and cidofovir. In conclusion, HCMV specific DC vaccination
is a feasible and effective immunotherapy among recipients of an allogeneic
haematopoietic stem cell transplant and will be further tested in a multicentre
study.

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CHAPTER 14.1 Immunotherapy post-transplant for infections

7. Vaccination with recombinant modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA)

The usage of full-length antigens expressed from MVA is a powerful immunotherapeutic
tool applicable regardless of an individuals HLA type. It has been shown that dual
HCMV antigen pp65/pp150 expressing MVA can be strongly recognised in vitro by
PBMC from CMV positive healthy subjects with HLA A*1101, HLA A*6801, HLA A*0301
and HLA B*0702 haplotypes. Furthermore, evaluation of immunogenicity indicates
that pp65-IE1-MVA additionally can induce robust primary immune response to both
antigens in HLA A2.1 transgenic mice (13, 14).
Since MVA has an exceedingly large capacity for foreign DNA, potentially multiple
disease targets could be incorporated into one vaccine, thereby reducing
manufacturing costs and dosing to patients.

Table 1: Treatment options for HCMV infection after allogeneic HSCT

Adoptive immunotherapy with Vaccination Vaccination
HCMV-specific T-cells Based on Dendritic cells Based on Modified Vaccinia
Virus (MVA)

Adoptive immunotherapy with Study using HCMV-peptide Preclinical studies have been
HCMV specific cytotoxic T-cells pulsed dendritic cells to treat performed and demonstrate the
has shown to be effective in HCMV infections after feasibility and efficacy of
improving the elimination of allogeneic HSCT. This strategy vaccinia-based HCMV vaccines
HCMV. is feasible and improves control in mice (13, 14)
A detailed summary of different of HCMV in allografted patients
strategies when performing (12)
adoptive immunotherapy is
provided in Table 2

8. Conclusions
Antigen specific T-cells are essential to the control of reactivation or primary
infection with HCMV or other viral infections. Immunotherapy offers an attractive
tool to improve immune reconstitution in these patients, leading to control of viral
replication without apparent side effects. This may reduce the usage of potentially
toxic antiviral chemotherapy (adverse effects such as myelo- or nephrotoxicity) and
circumvent the increasingly reported problems of the development of antiviral
drug resistance.
Stimulation and expansion conditions have to be improved to generate T-cell lines
containing not only terminally differentiated effector cells but also central-memory
T-cells, which are essential to build up a memory T-cell response in the recipient
(15). Further controlled trials with adoptive transfer of virus-specific T-cells versus

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Table 2: Clinical application of HCMV-specific immunotherapy

Year (Ref.) Strategy Results

Riddell S. Infusion of HCMV-specific First trial that demonstrated a successful transfer

1992 (2) cytotoxic T-cell clones of HCMV-specific CTL isolated from bone marrow
donors, propagated in vitro, and adoptively
transferred to immunodeficient bone marrow
transplant recipients. The transfer was safe, and
reconstitution of HCMV-specific CTL responses
could be documented.

Riddell S. Infusion of HCMV-specific Fourteen patients received intravenous infusions

1995 (1) cytotoxic T-cell clones of HCMV-specific T-cell clones from their donors.
In total, 56 infusions (4/patient) of HCMV-
specific cytotoxic-T-lymphocyte clones were
performed without any major side effects
and no viraemia or HCMV disease was observed
in any patients receiving adoptive
immunotherapy.

Einsele H. Infusion of HCMV-specific HCMV load dropped significantly in all 7 evaluable

2002 (8) polyclonal CD4+ T-cell lines patients, with a maximal reduction after a median
of 20 days (range, 5-31 days). Anti-HCMV cellular
therapy was successful in 5 of 7 patients, whereas
in 2 of 7 patients, who received an intensified
immune suppression at the time of or after T-cell
therapy, only transient reductions in virus load
were obtained.

Mackinnon S. Adoptive cellular therapy Polyclonal HCMV-specific T-cell lines were

2003 (6) with virus-specific T-cell generated for the treatment of 16 patients.
lines A massive in vivo expansion of HCMV-specific CTLs
was observed leading to a recovery of virus-
specific T-cell responses.
50% of the treated patients (8/16) did not
require a further treatment with antiviral drugs.

Moss P. Direct isolation and Reduction of HCMV viraemia in all treated

2005 (5) infusion of HCMV specific patients and a complete clearance of HCMV
CTL using HLA peptide infection in 8 patients, including one patient who
multimeric complexes had a prolonged history of HCMV infection that
was refractory to antiviral therapy.
HCMV-specific CD8+ T-cells were detected in all
patients within 10 d of infusion.

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CHAPTER 14.1 Immunotherapy post-transplant for infections

Table 3: Current projects

Adoptive immune therapy of chemotherapy-refractory CMV-infection with Streptamer-

selected T-cells after allogeneic bone marrow- or peripheral blood stem cell
transplantation

Correspondence to:
Dr. Gtz Ulrich Grigoleit
Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik II
Building C11
Josef-Schneider-Strasse 2
97080 Wrzburg, Germany
E-Mail: [email protected]

Although the adoptive transfer of in vitro expanded T-cells is effective its application has several
drawbacks. It is very time consuming and laborious to prepare the high cell numbers needed for
transplantation, especially since patients with an acute CMV-infection may not allow to wait for
the preparation of the cells. In addition the costs of such a treatment are extraordinary high,
raising the question if such a medication could be broadly introduced into clinical practice.
Due to these drawbacks multimer-based direct isolation of antigen-specific T-cells has evolved.
The use of low cell numbers without the need of time consuming in vitro expansion greatly
improves the adoptive transfers of T-cells.
Even though this approach has advanced adoptive transfer protocols, multimer-based T-cell
isolation still suffers from several disadvantages. The multimer reagents bind to the T-cell receptor
during the isolation procedure and thus stimulate the respective T-cell. This stimulus is likely to
cause apoptosis in the isolated cells, interfering with an effective T-cell transplantation. In
addition the multimer reagents are transferred together with the T-cells to the patient, which may
cause toxic or immunogenic side effects.
Recently the Streptamer technology was developed to overcome these problems (7). Streptamers
are reversible multimers which are unlikely to interfere with T-cell function since Streptamer
reagents can be rapidly dissociated from the T-cell receptor. In addition adoptively transferred
cells do not contain Streptamer.
Primary endpoints of this study are acute infusion related toxicities, such as anaphylactic
reaction, and the development of GvHD.
Secondary endpoints are the HCMV-load measured by quantitative PCR and the reconstitution of
HCMV specific cellular immunity.
To assess the side effects (primary endpoint) of the treatment, all patients undergo the following
examinations before and 1, 2, 4 weeks then monthly (up to 6 month) after transplantation:
physical examination, Karnofsky-score, bodyweight, body size, surface area, clinical grading of
GvHD (Seattle-scheme), serum chemistry, coagulation tests, and differential blood count.
To assess the efficacy of the adoptive T-cell therapy (secondary objective) the viral load and the
frequency of the HCMV specific T-cells will be monitored before and 1, 2, 4 weeks then monthly
(up to 6 month) after adoptive T-cell transfer.

continued

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Adoptive immunotherapy of chronic HCMV infection post allogeneic HSCT DC vaccination

Correspondence to:
Dr. Gtz Ulrich Grigoleit
Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik II
Building C11
Josef-Schneider-Strasse 2
97080 Wrzburg, Germany
E-Mail: [email protected]

Dendritic cell (DC) vaccination is a pathogen specific and highly immunostimulatory approach to
fight different infections and malignancies, but has never been evaluated in the setting of
allogeneic HSCT. The risk of GvHD still inhibits the use of immunostimulatory therapies such as DC
vaccination.
We completed a phase I/II study including 24 allogeneic HSCT recipients at high risk for HCMV
disease to analyse feasibility and efficacy of vaccination with HCMV peptide loaded DC. No acute
side effects were observed and we could demonstrate a significant clinical benefit in comparison
to our control group. Furthermore, an induction or expansion of HCMV-specific CTL could be
observed in 5 patients after DC vaccination.
To evaluate efficacy of this vaccination strategy, we set up a consecutive study with the goal to
vaccinate another 50 patients.

Adoptive immunotherapy of chemotherapy-refractory CMV or EBV infection using CD4+ and

CD8+ T-cells selected by cytokine-secretion assay

Correspondence to:
Dr. Max S. Topp
Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik II
Rntgenring 11
97070 Wrzburg, Germany
E-Mail: [email protected]

Goals:
To assess toxicity and efficacy of cytokine-capture based selection of CMV- or EBV-specific CD4+
and CD8+ T cells in patients with refractory CMV/EBV infection after allo-HSCT.

pre-emptive or prophylactic antiviral drug administration are needed to define the

role of cellular immunotherapy in the treatment algorithms of infections in the
immunocompromised host.
Although availability of clinical grade reagents for the selection of antigen specific
T-cells has largely improved in the last few years, we still need to learn more about
the best composition of a cellular product used for adoptive transfer. There is still
controversy about the benefit of transferring different T-cell subsets for adoptive
immunotherapy: namely, should we transfer only CD4+ T-cells or CD8+ T-cells or a
combination of both.

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CHAPTER 14.1 Immunotherapy post-transplant for infections

In addition, various methods of cell isolation and/or expansion result in different

stages of T-cell senescence. Freshly isolated and specifically selected T-cells have
greater expansion potential in vivo when compared to repetitive in vitro stimulated
T-cells. In contrast specific stimulation ex vivo might be more effective in depleting
alloreactive T-cells from the T-cell product.
In view of the many different methods of isolating and generating T-cells, future
studies have to define the best isolation procedures, the optimal T-cell subpopulations
to be used for antiviral T-cell therapy and the differentiation/activation stage or
stages of specific T-cells to be preferentially applied. In addition we will have to
define the optimal cell dose depending on viral load and immunosuppression of the
patient for each of these different cell populations.
According to established protocols for the generation of sufficient numbers of donor-
derived virus-specific T-cells for adoptive immunotherapy, the donor has to be antigen-
experienced. Thus, alternative strategies for priming virus-specific T-cell responses
are highly warranted.
Because no relevant adverse effects were observed in our first DC vaccination trial
in allogeneic HSCT recipients and because induction and expansion of HCMV-
specific T-cell responses leading to viral control was observed in some of the
patients, we will further evaluate and try to improve the efficacy of DC vaccination
post allogeneic HSCT in a larger cohort of patients.

References
1. Walter EA, Greenberg PD, Gilbert MJ, et al. Reconstitution of cellular immunity against
cytomegalovirus in recipients of allogeneic bone marrow by transfer of T-cell clones from
the donor. N Engl J Med 1995; 333: 1038-1044.
2. Riddell SR, Watanabe KS, Goodrich JM, et al. Restoration of viral immunity in
immunodeficient humans by the adoptive transfer of T-cell clones. Science 1992; 257: 238-
241.
3. Altman JD, Moss PA, Goulder PJ, et al. Phenotypic analysis of antigen-specific T
lymphocytes. Science 1996; 274: 94-96.
4. Keenan RD, Ainsworth J, Khan N, et al. Purification of cytomegalovirus-specific CD8 T
cells from peripheral blood using HLA-peptide tetramers. Br J Haematol 2001; 115: 428-
434.
5. Cobbold M, Khan N, Pourgheysari B, et al. Adoptive transfer of cytomegalovirus-specific
CTL to stem cell transplant patients after selection by HLA-peptide tetramers. J Exp Med
2005; 202: 379-386.
6. Peggs KS, Verfuerth S, Pizzey A, et al. Adoptive cellular therapy for early cytomegalovirus
infection after allogeneic stem-cell transplantation with virus-specific T-cell lines. Lancet
2003; 362: 1375-1377.
7. Knabel M, Franz TJ, Schiemann M, et al. Reversible MHC multimer staining for functional

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isolation of T-cell populations and effective adoptive transfer. Nat Med 2002; 8: 631-637.
8. Riddell SR, Greenberg PD. Principles for adoptive T cell therapy of human viral diseases.
Annu Rev Immunol 1995; 13: 545586.
9. Einsele H, Roosnek E, Rufer N, et al. Infusion of cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific T-cells
for the treatment of CMV infection not responding to antiviral chemotherapy. Blood 2002;
99: 3916-3922.
10.Casazza JP, Betts MR, Price DA, et al. Acquisition of direct antiviral effector functions
by CMV-specific CD4+ T lymphocytes with cellular maturation. J Exp Med 2006; 203:
28652877.
11.Rauser G, Einsele H, Sinzger C, et al. Rapid generation of combined CMV-specific CD4+
and CD8+ T-cell lines for adoptive transfer into recipients of allogeneic stem cell
transplants. Blood 2004; 103: 3565-3572.
12.Grigoleit GU, Kapp M, Hebart H, et al. Dendritic cell Vaccination in allogeneic stem cell
recipients: induction of HCMV-specific CTL responses even in patients receiving a
transplant from an HCMV-seronegative donor. J Infect Dis 2007; 196: 699-704.
13.Wang Z, La Rosa C, Mekhoubad S, et al. Attenuated poxviruses generate clinically relevant
frequencies of CMV-specific T cells. Blood 2004; 104: 847-856.
14.Wang Z, La Rosa C, Li Z, et al. Vaccine properties of a novel marker gene-free recombinant
modified vaccinia Ankara expressing immunodominant CMV antigens pp65 and IE1.Vaccine
2007; 25: 1132-1141.
15.Berger C, Jensen MC, Lansdorp PM, et al. Adoptive transfer of effector CD8 T cells derived
from central memory cells establishes persistent T cell memory in primates. J Clin Invest
2008; 118: 294-305.

Mutiple Choice Questionnaire

To find the correct answer, go to http://www.esh.org/ebmt-handbook2008answers.htm

1. Why might the transfer of unmanipulated virus-specific T-cells

(without in vitro expansion) be more efficient in control of viral
infection when compared to in vitro expanded cells?
a) The in vitro expansion decreases the expression of the pro-apoptotic
FAS molecule (CD95) and therefore leads to a shorter survival of the
transferred cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
b) The telomere length of specific T-cells after in vitro expansion is
reduced, possibly leading to a shorter survival of the adoptive
transferred T-cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
c) In vitro expanded cells have a greater risk of inducing GvHD compared
to directly selected cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
d) The TCR of the selected cells is blocked by the selecting agent . . . . . . . . . . .

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CHAPTER 14.1 Immunotherapy post-transplant for infections

2. Which risk of adoptive immunotherapy post allogeneic SCT is

potentially reduced by long term ex-vivo culture?
a) Acute transfusion reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
b) GvHD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
c) Contamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
d) Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3. Which statement is correct regarding an MVA-based vaccines?

a) Multiple antigens can be included in one single vaccine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
b) MVA soon will be the standard in immunotherapy post-transplant due
to a high evidence level based on multiple randomised controlled
trials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
c) These vaccines could be offered only to a limited number of patients
because only patients with distinct HLA haplotypes can be
vaccinated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
d) MVA has a small capacity for foreign DNA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4. What is the relevance of HCMV-specific TH cells in immunotherapy

post-transplant?
a) HCMV-specific TH cell responses are not necessary for the maintenance
of an adequate pathogen-specific immune responses. Transfer of a
CTL response is always sufficient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
b) Mature HCMV-specific CD4+ T-cells have functional features which
equal antiviral CD8+ T-lymphocytes and are important for maintenance
of transferred CMV-specific CD8+ T-cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
c) TH infusions have been demonstrated to cause severe transfusion
related reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
d) Generation of TH cells is much more expensive and time consuming
than generation of CD8+ clones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5. Which is not a potential risk of the transfer of CMV-specific T-cells?

a) Alloreactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
b) Increase in viral load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
c) Transfer of fungal infections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
d) Development of antiviral drug resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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HAEMATOPOIETIC STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION