T-cell therapy for viral infections

Viral infections remain a major cause of morbidity in patients with immunodeficiency, such as recipients of hemopoietic stem cell transplantation. Adoptive transfer of donor-derived virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes is a strategy to restore virus-specific immunity to prevent or treat viral diseases and has been tested in the clinical setting for more than 20 years. Several different groups have used expanded virus-specific T-cell products specific for one or multiple viruses to both reconstitute antiviral immunity after transplantation and to treat active viral infections. Response rates are encouraging, although resistance has been seen when the infused cell population has had restricted specificity or has targeted antigens expressed in donor-infected but not virally infected recipient cells. The goal of current trials is to make this approach more broadly applicable using more rapidly available products from the donor, such as directly selected or briefly expanded cells or closely matched banked cells.