Aspergillosis in Stem-Cell Transplantation

Donor TLR4 haplotype may be associated with risk for invasive aspergillosis in unrelated recipients of hematopoietic-cell transplants.

Invasive aspergillosis is a major cause of death in allogeneic stem-cell transplant recipients. Knowing that Aspergillus species can affect immune-cell activation by interacting with specific toll-like receptors (TLRs) and that mutations in TLR genes have been associated with increased risk for various infections, investigators in Seattle examined whether single nucleotide polymorphisms in four TLR genes in donor cells influence the risk for invasive aspergillosis in unrelated stem-cell transplant recipients.

The study’s first (“discovery”) phase involved 336 patients who had undergone allogeneic hematopoietic-cell transplantation from an unrelated donor. Thirty-three of them developed either proven or probable invasive aspergillosis during …

Reviewing Author

Larry M. Baddour, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesUpToDate, Inc. (Authorship duties)

Larry M. Baddour, MD

Disclosures

RoyaltiesUpToDate, Inc. (Authorship duties)