Patients who receive bone marrow transplant are vulnerable to fatal infections, but researchers have identified an "effective and rapid" response to protect the patient from developing multiple infections at once.
The new method employs virus-specific immune cells dubbed T cells, a Baylor College of Medicine news release reported. These cells help the body fight infections by recognizing viruses and destroying infected cells, in patients who have undergone a bone marrow transplant these cells are lacking.
Bone marrow transplants are often given to cancer patients who have undergone intensive chemotherapy or radiation. Severe infections occur in between 17 and 20 percent of those who have had the procedure. Antiviral medications used to treat these infections are expensive and often ineffective.
The study was led by Doctor Ann M. Leen, associate professor and the senior and corresponding author on the report, and Doctor Anastasia Papadopoulou, a postdoctoral fellow at Baylor at the time of the study and first author.
The researchers developed a new therapy that allows them to grow virus-specific T cells in a laboratory setting. They then transferred these cells back into the patient. The cells were made in only 10 days and targeted five dangerous viruses: "Epstein-Barr virus, adenovirus, cytomegalovirus, BK virus, and Human Herpesvirus 6 (HHV6)," the news release reported.
The team studied 11 patients who had received a bone marrow transplant, eight of the patients had up to four active infections at one time. The T cells produced a 94 percent virological and clinical response that lasted long-term.
"This study translated improved manufacturing techniques developed in Dr. Leen's laboratory to the clinic and showed that virus specific T cells produced with the new method could target new viruses and be ready for clinical use after 10 days," Doctor Helen Heslop, director for the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy and clinical principal investigator of the study, said in the news release. "These advances mean that this therapy could be available for more patients to treat viral infections and provide long lasting protection."
The team also demonstrated for the first time that BK virus and HHV6 reactivation could be controlled using these types of T cells.
"Unlike conventional anti-viral drugs, our therapy improves virus-specific T cell immunity - the root cause of post-transplant viral infections - providing both an effective and safe strategy to treat viruses," Leen said.
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