Frontiers in Immunology (Sep 2021)

Immune Recovery Following Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in HIV-Related Lymphoma Patients on the BMT CTN 0803/AMC 071 Trial

  • Polina Shindiapina,
  • Polina Shindiapina,
  • Maciej Pietrzak,
  • Michal Seweryn,
  • Eric McLaughlin,
  • Xiaoli Zhang,
  • Mat Makowski,
  • Elshafa Hassan Ahmed,
  • Elshafa Hassan Ahmed,
  • Sarah Schlotter,
  • Rebecca Pearson,
  • Rhonda Kitzler,
  • Anna Mozhenkova,
  • Jennifer Le-Rademacher,
  • Richard F. Little,
  • Gorgun Akpek,
  • Ernesto Ayala,
  • Steven M. Devine,
  • Lawrence D. Kaplan,
  • Ariela Noy,
  • Uday R. Popat,
  • Jack W. Hsu,
  • Lawrence E. Morris,
  • Adam M. Mendizabal,
  • Amrita Krishnan,
  • William Wachsman,
  • William Wachsman,
  • Nita Williams,
  • Nidhi Sharma,
  • Craig C. Hofmeister,
  • Stephen J. Forman,
  • Willis H. Navarro,
  • Willis H. Navarro,
  • Joseph C. Alvarnas,
  • Richard F. Ambinder,
  • Gerard Lozanski,
  • Robert A. Baiocchi,
  • Robert A. Baiocchi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.700045
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12

Abstract

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We report a first in-depth comparison of immune reconstitution in patients with HIV-related lymphoma following autologous hematopoietic cell transplant (AHCT) recipients (n=37, lymphoma, BEAM conditioning), HIV(-) AHCT recipients (n=30, myeloma, melphalan conditioning) at 56, 180, and 365 days post-AHCT, and 71 healthy control subjects. Principal component analysis showed that immune cell composition in HIV(+) and HIV(-) AHCT recipients clustered away from healthy controls and from each other at each time point, but approached healthy controls over time. Unsupervised feature importance score analysis identified activated T cells, cytotoxic memory and effector T cells [higher in HIV(+)], and naïve and memory T helper cells [lower HIV(+)] as a having a significant impact on differences between HIV(+) AHCT recipient and healthy control lymphocyte composition (p<0.0033). HIV(+) AHCT recipients also demonstrated lower median absolute numbers of activated B cells and lower NK cell sub-populations, compared to healthy controls (p<0.0033) and HIV(-) AHCT recipients (p<0.006). HIV(+) patient T cells showed robust IFNγ production in response to HIV and EBV recall antigens. Overall, HIV(+) AHCT recipients, but not HIV(-) AHCT recipients, exhibited reconstitution of pro-inflammatory immune profiling that was consistent with that seen in patients with chronic HIV infection treated with antiretroviral regimens. Our results further support the use of AHCT in HIV(+) individuals with relapsed/refractory lymphoma.

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