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Role of HCV-induced immune responses on the establishment of operational tolerance following liver transplantation in humans

ABSTRACT: 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.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE52420 | GEO | 2014/12/23

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA228527

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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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:Immunosuppression is needed in HLA identical sibling renal transplantation. We conducted a tolerance trial in this patient cohort using Alemtuzumab induction, donor hematopoietic stem cells, tacrolimus/mycophenolate immunosuppression converted to sirolimus, planning complete drug withdrawal by 24 months post-transplantation. After an additional 12 months with no immunosuppression, normal biopsies and renal function, recipients were considered tolerant. Twenty recipients were enrolled. Of the first 10 (>36 months post-transplantation), 5 had immunosuppression successfully withdrawn for 16-36 months (tolerant), 2 had disease recurrence and 3 had subclinical rejection in protocol biopsies (non-tolerant). Microchimerism disappeared after 1 year, and CD4+CD25highCD127-FOXP3+ T cells and CD19+IgD/M+CD27- B cells increased to 5 years post-transplantation in both groups, whereas immune/inflammatory gene expression pathways in the peripheral blood and urine were differentially downregulated in tolerant compared to non-tolerant recipients. Therefore, in this HLA identical renal transplant tolerance trial, absent chimerism, Treg and Breg immunophenotypes were indistinguishable between tolerant and non-tolerant recipients, but global genomic changes indicating immunomodulation were observed only in tolerant recipients. A total of 46 PBMC samples representing blood draws from four time points in the first 9 recipients were processed for microarray analysis (The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA). The analyzed time points were: immediately pre-operatively in the absence of immunosuppression (n=9); post-operatively at 1 year (n=8, range 11-13 months); at 2 years (n=12, range 18-25 months); >3 years (n=17, range 32-48 months). (At year 2 and at > 3 years, repeated samples were obtained from individual subjects, and at one year, one subject had a technically unsatisfactory sample.) To discount the effects of immunosuppression on gene expression, microarray data were included on whole blood from 18 healthy human subjects (controls: GSE40586; NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus [GEO] repository).

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Role of HCV-induced immune responses on the establishment of operational tolerance following liver transplantation in humans

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