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  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Lawitschka, Anita
A1  - Brunmair, Matthias
A1  - Bauer, Dorothea
A1  - Zubarovskaya, Natalia
A1  - Felder-Puig, Rosemarie
A1  - Strahm, Brigitte
A1  - Bader, Peter
A1  - Strauss, Gabriele
A1  - Albert, Michael
A1  - Luettichau, Irene von
A1  - Greinix, Hildegard
A1  - Wolff, Daniel
A1  - Peters, Christina
T1  - Psychometric properties of the Activities Scale for Kids-performance after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in adolescents and children
BT  - Results of a prospective study on behalf of the German-Austrian-Swiss GVHD Consortium
JF  - Wiener klinische Wochenschrift
N2  - Background
The psychometric properties of an instrument, the Activity Scale for Kids-performance (ASKp), were assessed which was proposed to capture physical functioning after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Additionally, this multicenter observational prospective study investigated the influence of clinical correlates focusing on chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD).

Methods
Patient-reported ASKp, clinician-reported Karnofsky/Lansky status (KPS/PSS), patient characteristics and cGVHD details were assessed of 55 patients with a median age of 12 years at baseline after day +100 post-HSCT and every 3 months during the next 18 months. The psychometric properties were evaluated and ASKp and KPS/PSS status was compared using ANOVAS and multiple regression models.

Results
The German version of the ASKp showed good psychometric properties except for ceiling effects. Discrimination ability of the ASKp was good regarding the need for devices but failed to predict cGVHD patients. Both the ASKp and the KPS/PSS were associated with patients after adoptive cell therapy being in need for devices, suffering from overlap cGVHD and from steroid side effects but not with patients’ age and gender. In contrast to the KPS/PSS the ASKp only showed significant differences after merging moderate and severe cGHVD patients when comparing them to No-cGVHD (F = 4.050; p = 0.049), being outperformed by the KPS/PSS (F = 20.082; p < 0.001).

Conclusion
The ASKp showed no clear advantages compared to KPS/PSS even though economical and patients’ effort was higher. Further application range may be limited through ceiling effects. Both should be taken into consideration. Therefore, the results may not support the usage of ASKp after HSCT and rather suggest KPS/PSS, both patient and clinician reported.
KW  - physical functioning
KW  - cancer patients
KW  - AYAs
KW  - GVHD
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-281100
VL  - 133
IS  - 1-2
ER  -