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High prevalence of CD3, NK, and NKT cells in the graft predicts adverse outcome after matched-related and unrelated transplantations with post transplantation cyclophosphamide

Abstract

The predictive value of graft composition and plasma biomarkers on the outcome of allogeneic HSCT is well known for conventional GVHD prophylaxis based on calcineurin inhibitors with or without antithymocyte globulin. Currently, there is limited data whether these results could be translated to post transplantation cyclophosphamide (PTCy). The prospective extension cohort of NCT02294552 trial enrolled 79 adult patients with acute leukemia in CR. Twenty-six received matched-related bone marrow (BM) grafts with single-agent PTCy and 53 received unrelated peripheral blood stem cell graft (PBSC) with PTCy, tacrolimus, and MMF. The grafts were studied by the flow cytometry, and plasma samples were analyzed by ELISA. In the cluster and major component analysis, we determined that transplantation from donors with high content of CD3, NKT, and CD16-CD56 + subpopulations in the PBSC grafts was associated with poor immunological recovery and compromised event-free survival (50% vs. 80%, HR 2.93, p = 0.015) both due to increased relapse incidence and non-relapse mortality. The significant independent predictor of moderate and severe chronic GVHD was the high prevalence of and iNKT, Vβ11, and double-positive cells in the PBSC grafts from young donors (HR 2.75, p = 0.0483). No patterns could be identified for BM grafts and for plasma biomarkers.

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the RFBR grant 16–34–60142 mol_а_dk and RSF grant №17–75–20145. We express our deep gratitude to the unrelated donor registries’ employees who provided the extended information about the unrelated donors: Tigran Torosian and Jan Markert from DKMS, Andreas Heu from Stefan Morsch Stiftung, Malisheva Natalia from Kirov registry, and Marina Teterina from Saint-Petersburg registry. We thank Valerii Beklenischev for performing the biobanking and handling of the frozen samples and our nurses for the collection of the samples.

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Moiseev, I.S., Babenko, E.V., Epifanovskaya, O.S. et al. High prevalence of CD3, NK, and NKT cells in the graft predicts adverse outcome after matched-related and unrelated transplantations with post transplantation cyclophosphamide. Bone Marrow Transplant 55, 544–552 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-019-0665-3

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