Roseola

Antiviral T-cell transfer

One study has reported proof-of-concept treatment of reactivated HHV-6 (and other viruses) in patients who are severely immunocompromised, using adoptive transfer of antiviral allogeneic cytotoxic T cells.[24]Papadopoulou A, Gerdemann U, Katari UL, et al. Activity of broad-spectrum T cells as treatment for AdV, EBV, CMV, BKV, and HHV6 infections after HSCT. Sci Transl Med. 2014;6:242ra83. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4181611 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24964991?tool=bestpractice.com This approach relies upon having local expertise and resources to perform the ex-vivo stimulation and selection of antiviral-specific T-cell clones, and is a not particularly quick approach to the treatment of severely ill patients, with the clonal expansion step taking 9 to 11 days. It may, however, work well in those situations where antiviral drug therapy can provide some degree of effective therapy while the adoptive transfer is prepared. A risk of this approach is graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). One patient in this small study of 11 did develop mild, easily controlled cutaneous GVHD. Studies are currently ongoing regarding this approach.