Sirolimus Reduces Risk for Cytomegalovirus Infection in Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplant Recipients

Reactivation of cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common event after hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT), and antiviral therapy is often required to prevent progression to CMV disease. Previous studies demonstrated that solid-organ transplant recipients treated with inhibitors of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), such as sirolimus or everolimus, have fewer clinical CMV events than those on other forms of immunosuppression (Am J Transplant 2015 May 18; 15:2655). In a new single-center retrospective study, investigators assessed the role of sirolimus and tacrolimus exposure on CMV DNAemia.

The study included 53 consecutive allogeneic HSCT recipients who were treated with sirolimus and tacrolimus as graft-versus-host disease proph…