Therapeutic Infusion of Partially HLA-Matched Third-Party Virus-Specific T Cells in HSCT Patients with Refractory Viral Infection

Introduction

Adoptive transfer of donor derived virus specific T cells (VST) can be effective therapy for infections in allogeneic HSCT recipients. However, this is not a practical strategy to treat acute infections due to the time required to prepare products and potential unavailability of transplant donors. To overcome this, treatment with cryopreserved partially HLA-matched T cells from third-party donors is being investigated. A recent report described disease resolution using cells matched at only one or two HLA alleles (Leen et al., (2013) Blood 121(26):5113-23). This less stringent requirement for matching would allow a small bank of cells to provide most patients with a therapeutic product. We describe the establishment of a virus specific T cell bank in Australia with centralized manufacturing by the Westmead Hospital BMT laboratory. The bank has been used to treat patients in multiple states in a Phase I clinical trial to treat patients who have failed antiviral pharmacotherapy.

Aim

To assess the safety and feasibility of treatment with partially HLA-matched VSTs derived from third-party donors for refractory cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), or adenoviral (AdV) infection in allogeneic HSCT patients.

Methods

We generated a bank of cryopreserved VSTs from peripheral blood or G-CSF mobilized stem cell product of healthy donors. Products were generated by co-culturing PBMC with dendritic cells loaded with overlapping peptides covering CMV pp65, AdV hexon or EBV BZLF1, LMP2A and EBNA1 proteins. Cultures were re-stimulated once with peptide loaded DC and cultured for 14 days with IL-2. Products were assessed for phenotype, sterility and specificity by MHC multimer staining where applicable or production of interferon-gamma in response to peptides by flow cytometry.

Patients with persistent viral reactivation/infection after 2 weeks of standard therapy were eligible to receive up to 4 fortnightly infusions of 2x10⁷ cells/m²partially HLA matched (minimum 1/6) CMV, EBV, or AdV specific T cells, and were followed for up to 12 months.

Results

T cell products were expanded from 25 donors to create a bank of 177 bags of VSTs (75 CMV, 47 AdV and 55 EBV). CMV specific products were predominantly T cells (mean 95.8±3%) with a higher proportion of CD8⁺ compared to CD4⁺ T cells (mean 66.6±23.9% versus 20.1±6.2%). Specificity was mapped by MHC multimer staining to epitopes restricted to common HLA types including HLA-A*0101, HLA-A*0201, HLA-A*2402, HLA-B*0702 and HLA-B*3501. AdV specific T cells had a higher proportion of CD4⁺ T cells (mean 64.6±23.8% versus 34.2±20.1% CD8 T cells). Specificity was mapped to CD8 epitopes restricted to HLA-A*0101 and HLA-A*2402 as well as 10 CD4 T cell epitopes restricted to three HLA-DRB1 alleles (DRB1*0301, DRB1*0701, DRB1*1501). EBV specific products contained a mix of CD8⁺ and CD4⁺T cells (mean 38.9%±18% AND 42.5±23.1% respectively). The antigen specificity of EBV products showed high variability between donors. Dominant responses to known MHC class I restricted epitopes were infrequent though responses were mapped to HLA-A*0201 and HLA-A*2402 restricted LMP2A epitopes, a HLA-B*0801 restricted BZLF1 epitope and a HLA-B*0702 restricted EBNA1 epitope. Based on HLA frequency analysis in the Australian recipient population we estimate 94%, 89% and 74% of patients would have access to a CMV, AdV and EBV specific product respectively with the current bank.

To date nine patients have received VSTs, with median follow-up of 5.5 months (0-12 months). All patients had treatment resistant CMV after a median of 26 days (19-116 days) prior therapy. Six patients received a single infusion and 3 patients received 2, 3 and 4 infusions respectively. HLA matching ranged from 2-4/6 HLA match. There were no instances of 24hr infusion related toxicity. Follow-up data is available for 7 patients. One patient with chronic hepatitis C developed abnormal liver function tests 3 months post-infusion. One patient died from presumed progressive CMV disease 6 months post-enrolment. Five patients achieved a best response of CMV PCR negativity (2 with complete resolution of CMV-colitis). One patient has shown >50% reduction in CMV copy number over 3 weeks.

Conclusion

The infusion of third party CMV specific T cells is a promising therapy that offers the advantage of rapid availability, centralized manufacturing and relatively low cost per dose when produced on a large scale.