Immunotherapy Against Multiple Opportunistic Viruses in Immunocompromised Patients

Reactivation of latent viruses often occurs in immunocompromised patients. Antiviral drugs offer some benefit. Immunotherapy that encourages virus-specific T cells has been reported; however, the technology behind such treatment is complex and costly.

A group from Baylor University now reports creating donor-derived T cells that simultaneously target five different opportunistic viruses: Epstein-Barr virus, adenovirus, cytomegalovirus, BK virus, and human herpesvirus 6. The team directly stimulated donor cells with peptide libraries that contained target antigens of all the viruses and administered the cells to 11 allogeneic transplant recipients. In three participants, treatment was given prophylactically: None of these participants develop…