Genetic Predisposition and Aspergillosis in Stem-Cell Transplant Recipients

Animal infection models have suggested that the protein long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is important in antifungal immunity. In a recent study, researchers screened patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) and their donors for single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the PTX3 gene to determine whether certain SNPs were associated with increased risk for developing invasive aspergillosis (IA).

Two different patient populations were screened for SNPs: 268 adult patients with hematologic disorders who were undergoing allogeneic HSCT — and their respective donors — from one medical center in Italy (discovery cohort), and 107 HSCT patients with proven or probable IA at various medical centers in Europe and 223 matche…