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Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a consequence of reactivation of the neurotropic JC virus in heavily immunosuppressed patients. While PML is uncommon in solid-organ transplant recipients, the case fatality rate exceeds 80% — with no known effective treatment (Ann Neurol 2011; 70:305). Now, investigators describe clinical improvement in a kidney transplant recipient with severe, progressive PML after treatment with HLA-matched BK-virus–specific T cells.
The patient (who was treated with additional immunosuppression for autoimmune thrombocytopenia and had a history of multiple myeloma in remission) developed PML with bilateral hemiparesis and aphasia. Despite reduction of immunosuppression, the patient's neurologic conditio…