TY - JOUR A1 - Banas, Bernhard A1 - Steubl, Dominik A1 - Renders, Lutz A1 - Chittka, Dominik A1 - Banas, Miriam C. A1 - Wekerle, Thomas A1 - Koch, Martina A1 - Witzke, Oliver A1 - Mühlfeld, Anja A1 - Sommerer, Claudia A1 - Habicht, Antje A1 - Hugo, Christian A1 - Hünig, Thomas A1 - Lindemann, Monika A1 - Schmidt, Traudel A1 - Rascle, Anne A1 - Barabas, Sascha A1 - Deml, Ludwig A1 - Wagner, Ralf A1 - Krämer, Bernhard K. A1 - Krüger, Bernd T1 - Clinical validation of a novel enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot assay-based in vitro diagnostic assay to monitor cytomegalovirus-specific cell-mediated immunity in kidney transplant recipients: a multicenter, longitudinal, prospective, observational study T2 - Transplant International N2 - Impaired cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific cell-mediated immunity (CMV-CMI) is a major cause of CMV reactivation and associated complications in solid-organ transplantation. Reliably assessing CMV-CMI is desirable to individually adjust antiviral and immunosuppressive therapy. This study aimed to evaluate the suitability of T-Track® CMV, a novel IFN-γ ELISpot assay based on the stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells with pp65 and IE-I CMV proteins, to monitor CMV-CMI following kidney transplantation. A prospective longitudinal multicenter study was conducted in 86 intermediate-risk renal transplant recipients. CMV-CMI, CMV viral load, and clinical complications were monitored over 6 months post-transplantation. Ninety-five percent and 88–92% ELISpot assays were positive pre- and post-transplantation, respectively. CMV-specific response was reduced following immunosuppressive treatment and increased in patients with graft rejection, indicating the ability of the ELISpot assay to monitor patients' immunosuppressive state. Interestingly, median pp65-specific response was ninefold higher in patients with self-clearing viral load compared to antivirally treated patients prior to first viral load detection (P < 0.001), suggesting that reactivity to pp65 represents a potential immunocompetence marker. Altogether, T-Track® CMV is a highly sensitive IFN-γ ELISpot assay, suitable for the immunomonitoring of CMV-seropositive renal transplant recipients, and with a potential use for the risk assessment of CMV-related clinical complications (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02083042). KW - CMV-specific cell-mediated immunity KW - cytomegalovirus KW - IFN‐γ ELISpot KW - immunomonitoring KW - in vitro diagnostic KW - kidney or renal transplantation Y1 - 2018 UR - https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/opus4-wuerzburg/frontdoor/index/index/docId/22146 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-221468 VL - 31 ER -