TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wagner-Drouet, Eva
A1  - Teschner, Daniel
A1  - Wolschke, Christine
A1  - Schäfer-Eckart, Kerstin
A1  - Gärtner, Johannes
A1  - Mielke, Stephan
A1  - Schreder, Martin
A1  - Kobbe, Guido
A1  - Hilgendorf, Inken
A1  - Klein, Stefan
A1  - Verbeek, Mareike
A1  - Ditschkowski, Markus
A1  - Koch, Martina
A1  - Lindemann, Monika
A1  - Schmidt, Traudel
A1  - Rascle, Anne
A1  - Barabas, Sascha
A1  - Deml, Ludwig
A1  - Wagner, Ralf
A1  - Wolff, Daniel
T1  - Comparison of cytomegalovirus-specific immune cell response to proteins versus peptides using an IFN-γ ELISpot assay after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
JF  - Diagnostics
N2  - Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Measuring CMV-specific cellular immunity may improve the risk stratification and management of patients. IFN-γ ELISpot assays, based on the stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells with CMV pp65 and IE-1 proteins or peptides, have been validated in clinical settings. However, it remains unclear to which extend the T-cell response to synthetic peptides reflect that mediated by full-length proteins processed by antigen-presenting cells. We compared the stimulating ability of pp65 and IE-1 proteins and corresponding overlapping peptides in 16 HSCT recipients using a standardized IFN-γ ELISpot assay. Paired qualitative test results showed an overall 74.4% concordance. Discordant results were mainly due to low-response tests, with one exception. One patient with early CMV reactivation and graft-versus-host disease, sustained CMV DNAemia and high CD8\(^+\) counts showed successive negative protein-based ELISpot results but a high and sustained response to IE-1 peptides. Our results suggest that the response to exogenous proteins, which involves their uptake and processing by antigen-presenting cells, more closely reflects the physiological response to CMV infection, while the response to exogenous peptides may lead to artificial in vitro T-cell responses, especially in strongly immunosuppressed patients.
KW  - CMV
KW  - CMV-specific cellular immunity
KW  - hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
KW  - recall antigen
KW  - peptide
KW  - immune monitoring
KW  - IFN-γ ELISpot
KW  - T cells
KW  - antigen processing and presentation
KW  - immunosuppression
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-228843
SN  - 2075-4418
VL  - 11
IS  - 2
ER  -