In Vivo Persistence of Donor Cells following Adoptive Transfer of Allogeneic Dendritic Cells in HIV-Infected Patients

• Published in: Cell transplantation 2000-05, Vol.9 (3), p.307
• Main Authors: Shapero, Michael H, Kundu, Smriti K, Engleman, Edgar, Laus, Reiner, Van Schooten, Wim C A, Merigan, Thomas C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1555-3892
• DOI: 10.1177/096368970000900302

Peripheral blood samples from HIV-seropositive individuals enrolled in a pilot clinical trial investigating the use of allogeneic dendritic cell therapy were evaluated for mixed chimerism. In this study, dendritic cells from HLA-identical, HIV-seronegative siblings were used. Patients received an infusion of dendritic cells pulsed with HIV MN gp160 protein or with peptides from HLA-A2 restricted epitopes of env, gag, and pol proteins every month for 6-9 months. Of the five allogeneic dendritic cell recipients, two showed increases in HIV antigen-specific immune responses. Allele-specific polymorphisms were identified in three sib-pairs that allowed infused donor cells to be detected using sensitive PCR-based molecular methods. Analysis of blood samples from patients showed similar patterns of donor cell persistence after the first infusion, in that cells were detectable for at least 1 week. Also, differences were observed in the kinetics of cell survival between the first and subsequent infusion cycles in all three patients. This suggests variation in HIV-specific immune responses detected among these three patients was not due to differences in persistence of infused donor cells.