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Adoptive immunotherapy with liver allograft-derived lymphocytes induces anti-HCV activity after liver transplantation in humans and humanized mice.

ABSTRACT: After liver transplantation in HCV-infected patients, the virus load inevitably exceeds pre-transplantation levels. This phenomenon reflects suppression of the host-effector immune responses that control HCV replication by the immunosuppressive drugs used to prevent rejection of the transplanted liver. Here, we describe an adoptive immunotherapy approach, using lymphocytes extracted from liver allograft perfusate (termed herein liver allograft-derived lymphocytes), which includes an abundance of NK/NKT cells that mounted an anti-HCV response in HCV-infected liver transplantation recipients, despite the immunosuppressive environment. This therapy involved intravenously injecting patients 3 days after liver transplantation with liver allograft-derived lymphocytes treated with IL-2 and the CD3-specific mAb OKT3. During the first month after liver transplantation, the HCV RNA titers in the sera of recipients who received immunotherapy were markedly lower than those in the sera of recipients who did not receive immunotherapy. We further explored these observations in human hepatocyte-chimeric mice, in which mouse hepatocytes were replaced by human hepatocytes. These mice unfailingly developed HCV infections after inoculation with HCV-infected human serum. However, injection of human liver-derived lymphocytes treated with IL-2/OKT3 completely prevented HCV infection. Furthermore, an in vitro study using genomic HCV replicon-containing hepatic cells revealed that IFN-gamma-secreting cells played a pivotal role in such anti-HCV responses. Thus, our study presents what we believe to be a novel paradigm for the inhibition of HCV replication in HCV-infected liver transplantation recipients.

SUBMITTER: Ohira M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2769186 | biostudies-other | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Adoptive immunotherapy with liver allograft-derived lymphocytes induces anti-HCV activity after liver transplantation in humans and humanized mice.

Ohira Masahiro M Ishiyama Kohei K Tanaka Yuka Y Doskali Marlen M Doskali Marlen M Igarashi Yuka Y Tashiro Hirotaka H Hiraga Nobuhiko N Imamura Michio M Sakamoto Naoya N Asahara Toshimasa T Chayama Kazuaki K Ohdan Hideki H

The Journal of clinical investigation 20091001 11

After liver transplantation in HCV-infected patients, the virus load inevitably exceeds pre-transplantation levels. This phenomenon reflects suppression of the host-effector immune responses that control HCV replication by the immunosuppressive drugs used to prevent rejection of the transplanted liver. Here, we describe an adoptive immunotherapy approach, using lymphocytes extracted from liver allograft perfusate (termed herein liver allograft-derived lymphocytes), which includes an abundance of ...[more]

PMID: 19805910

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Project description:Immune responses induced by ongoing and/or past infections prevent the establishment of transplantation tolerance in experimental animal models. How host-pathogen interactions influence allograft tolerance in humans has not been investigated before. The spontaneous development of operational tolerance in liver transplant recipients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection constitutes a unique setting to address this question. We conducted a clinical trial of immunosuppression withdrawal in stable HCV-infected liver recipients to elucidate: i) the mechanisms through which allograft tolerance is established in the presence of an ongoing inflammatory response; and ii) how is influenced by anti-HCV heterologous immune responses. Enrolled patients gradually discontinued their immunosuppressive drugs over 6-9 months, and those who maintained normal allograft status 12 months after drug withdrawal were considered operationally tolerant. Successful drug withdrawal was associated with intra-hepatic over-expression of type I interferon and immune-regulatory genes, and correlated with an expansion of exhausted PD1/CTLA4/2B4-positive HCV-specific circulating CD8+ T cells. These findings were already present before immunosuppression was discontinued and were specific for HCV infection. In contrast, the magnitude of HCV-induced inflammatory gene expression and the scope of anti-HCV effector T cell responses did not influence drug withdrawal outcome. Our data indicate that in humans persistent viral infections do not necessarily preclude the development of transplantation tolerance. At least in HCV-infected liver allografts, mechanisms associated with the capacity of the virus to evade adaptive immunity could contribute to the restraining of alloimmune responses and the establishment of transplantation tolerance. Transcriptomic study from the following liver tissue samples: 12 tolerant before immunosuppression (IS), 13 non-tolerant before IS, 4 from non-tolerant at the time of rejection, 13 from tolerant patients 12 months after IS discontinuation. Additionally, 8 liver tissue samples obtained from healthy living liver donors undergoing partial hepatectomy were included as non-transplanted controls.

Project description:In hepatitis C virus (HCV)/human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-infected patients, HIV enhances HCV replication and liver damage. Several microRNAs (miRNAs), active in pro-fibrotic and inflammatory pathways, have been implicated in the pathogenesis of this phenomenon. However, these miRNAs have been tested only in explanted cirrhotic livers, when the liver damage has become chronic and irreversible. No data are available on the early phase of viral infection, such as early after liver transplantation (LT). In the present study, the expression of miR-101, miR-122, miR-155, miR-192, miR-200c, miR-338, and miR-532 was determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction in liver biopsies of HCV (n = 19) and HCV/HIV-infected (n = 20) LT recipients, as well as in a control group (n = 18) of noninfected patients, transplanted for alcoholic cirrhosis. The timing of liver biopsy was 6 months post-LT. None of the patients was treated with direct-acting anti-HCV drugs. All co-infected recipients had suppressed HIV viral load. Grading and staging were assessed according to the Ishak Classification. HCV and HIV viral load were measured in the sera. miR-101 (p = .03), miR-122 (p = .012), and miR-192 (p = .038) were significantly downregulated in HCV/HIV co-infected and HCV mono-infected recipients when compared with noninfected recipients, and such downregulation was more pronounced in co-infected ones. Moreover, in co-infected recipients but not in mono-infected ones, miR-101 inversely correlated with the peripheral HCV-RNA levels (r = .41, p = .04) and miR-122 inversely correlated with peripheral HCV-RNA levels (r = .49, p = .03) and with the histological grading (r = .51, p = .02). In conclusion, as early as 6 months after LT, the presence of HIV-HCV co-infection enhanced a significant downregulation of certain miRNAs that showed a direct correlation with HCV viral load and liver inflammation.

Dataset Information

Adoptive immunotherapy with liver allograft-derived lymphocytes induces anti-HCV activity after liver transplantation in humans and humanized mice.

Publications

Adoptive immunotherapy with liver allograft-derived lymphocytes induces anti-HCV activity after liver transplantation in humans and humanized mice.

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