Comparison of the T-cell response to human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) as detected by cytokine flow cytometry and QuantiFERON-CMV assay in HCMV-seropositive kidney transplant recipients.

Comparison of the T-cell response to human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) as detected by cytokine flow cytometry and QuantiFERON-CMV assay in HCMV-seropositive kidney transplant recipients. New Microbiol. 2018 Jul 20;41(2) Authors: Gabanti E, Lilleri D, Scaramuzzi L, Zelini P, Rampino T, Gerna G Abstract Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV)-specific T-cell response in kidney transplant recipients (KTR) helps to identify patients at risk for severe infection. To assess the T-cell response, this study compared our in-house developed reference test, based on T-cell (both CD4+ and CD8+) stimulation by autologous HCMV-infected dendritic cells (iDC) and subsequent detection by cytokine flow cytometry (CFC-iDC), with the QuantiFERON-CMV (QF-CMV) assay. Fifty-three HCMVseropositive KTR were enrolled. At the DNAemia peak, 33 (62%) had low viral load (LVL, <3x105 DNA copies/mL) self-resolving infection, 19 (36%) high viral load (HVL, >3x105 DNA copies/mL) infection treated with antivirals, and one LVL patient (2%) tissue-invasive disease alone. Both assays showed a delayed recovery of HCMV-specific T-cell immunity in HVL vs LVL patients. Immune reconstitution kinetics did not significantly differ between the two assays in HVL patients. QF-CMV and CFC-iDC showed comparable sensitivities, but QF-CMV had a lower (although not significantly) specificity. Indeed, 7/19 HVL patients (37%) were erroneously considered protected from severe infection by QF-CMV, w...
Source: New Microbiologica - Category: Microbiology Tags: New Microbiol Source Type: research