Human cytomegalovirus-specific immunity following haemopoietic stem cell transplantation

✍ Scribed by Maher K Gandhi; Mark R Wills; J.G Patrick Sissons; Andrew J Carmichael

• Book ID: 104322993
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 102 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0268-960X
• DOI: 10.1016/s0268-960x(03)00028-6

✦ Synopsis

The herpesvirus Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is an important opportunistic infection in recipients of allogeneic haemopoietic stem cell transplants, in whom HCMV-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell responses are impaired. The nature of the HCMV-specific T-cell response in healthy virus carriers has been characterised in detail. High frequencies of circulating CD8+ T-cells that recognise defined viral peptides are maintained for years, and include individual CD8+ clones that have undergone extensive clonal expansion and phenotypic diversification in vivo. Following stem cell transplantation, the kinetics of HCMV-specific CD8+ T-cell reconstitution in the recipient are related to the presence or absence of antigenexperienced CD8+ T-cells transferred via the allograft, and to the presence of the virus in the recipient. We discuss recent progress in our understanding of HCMV-specific immunity in healthy virus carriers and in recipients after alloSCT.