Cytotoxic T Cells to Prevent Virus Infections



Status:Active, not recruiting
Conditions:Infectious Disease
Therapuetic Areas:Immunology / Infectious Diseases
Healthy:No
Age Range:Any
Updated:2/17/2019
Start Date:September 2013
End Date:September 2020

Use our guide to learn which trials are right for you!

Adoptive Transfer of Cord Blood T Cells to Prevent and Treat CMV, EBV and Adenovirus Infections After Transplantation

In this study, investigators are trying to see if infusion of "m-CTLs" will prevent or treat
cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) and adenovirus (AdV) reactivation or
infection after cord blood transplant.

Patients with blood cell cancer, other blood disease or a genetic disease may receive a cord
blood transplant (UCBT) from an unrelated donor. After receiving a cord blood transplant,
they are at risk of infections until a new immune system to fight infections grows from the
cord blood cells. In this study, investigators are trying to give special cells from the cord
blood called T cells. These cells will try to fight viruses that can cause infection.

Investigators will test to see if blood cells from donor that have been grown in a special
way, can prevent patients from getting an infection. EBV, AdV and CMV are viruses that can
cause serious life-threatening infections in patients who have weak immune systems after
transplant.

T lymphocytes can kill viral cells but normally there are not enough of them to kill all the
virus infected cells after transplant. Some researcher have taken T cells from a person's
blood, grown more of them in the laboratory and then given them back to the person during a
viral infection after a bone marrow transplant. Some of these studies have shown a positive
therapeutic effect in patients receiving the CTLs (specially trained T cells) after a viral
infection in the post-transplant period. In this study we are trying to prevent or treat
viral infections by given the CTLs soon after getting the umbilical cord blood transplant.

With this study, investigators want to see if they can use a kind of white blood cell called
T cells to prevent or treat AdV, EBV and CMV infection. Investigators will grow these T cells
from the cord blood before transplant. These cells have been trained to attack
adenovirus/EBV/CMV- infected cells and are called multivirus-specific cytotoxic (killer)
T-cells or "m-CTL." Investigators would plan to give patients one dose of m-CTL any time from
30 to 364 days after your transplant. They have used T cells made in this way from the blood
of donors to prevent infections in patients who are getting a bone marrow or blood stem cell
transplant but this will be the first time investigators make them from cord blood.

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is a readily available alternative source of Hemotopoietic Stem
Cells (HSCs) that is capable of reconstituting hematopoiesis after myeloablative therapy.
More than 280,000 UCB units have been banked world-wide and more than 13,000 unrelated donor
UCB transplantations have been performed.

UCB transplants offer several advantages over adult bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell
transplants, including: 1) rapid availability, 2) absence of donor risk, 3) low risk of
transmissible infectious diseases, 4) low risk of acute Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD) in
the setting of Human Leukocye Antigen (HLA) mismatch (as compared to recipients of unrelated
donor marrow and peripheral blood). UCB is particularly beneficial for patients of ethnic and
racial minority descent for whom adult marrow and blood donors often cannot be identified.

In a larger series the neutrophil engraftment has been reported as high as 92%. The incidence
of acute GvHD reported in larger series ranges from 33-44% to 11-22% for grades II-IV and
III-IV acute GvHD, respectively. The incidence of chronic GvHD ranges from 0-25%. These
results are particularly notable since most UCB donor-recipient pairs are 1-2 HLA antigen
mismatched. However, infection related TRMs are still of concern after UCBT. The rate of
hemopoietic recovery is slower after UCBT; therefore infectious complications including viral
infections occur frequently.

Multi virus Specific T cells from Cord Blood could be applied with comparable success to
recipients of CB transplants; however, certain obstacles to the extension of this approach
must be circumvented. These include: (i) the limited numbers of CB T-cells available for
manipulation and (ii) the naivety of CB T-cells. Hence, the development of virus-protective
T-cell therapy for patients undergoing CBT requires the priming and extensive expansion of
naïve T-cells rather than the more limited and simple direct expansion of pre-existing
virus-specific memory T-cell populations from virus-experienced donors. Further, CB T-cells
have lower cytotoxic activity and higher activation-induced cell death than peripheral blood
T-cells. These limitations have prevented the production of virus-specific cord blood-derived
CTL in sufficient numbers for clinical use. Because of these challenges, only a few reports
document the generation of antigen-specific T cells from CB. Sun et al first reported the
ability to generate EBV-specific CD4+ T cells using EBV-transformed B-cells, or
lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL). Park et al then reported the ability to generate
CMV-pp65-specific T cells from cord blood by using CMV-immune complex-loaded DCs, CMV lysate,
and IL-12 and IL-7. The study at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM)showed that
Ad5f35pp65-transduced CB-derived APC could be used to generate large numbers of autologous
T-cells specific for both CMV and Ad, even from the phenotypically naive T-cell
subpopulation. Addition of EBV-transformed B-lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) to the APCs
allowed the Ad/CMV specificity of the CB T-cells to be extended to EBV. In addition, the
multivirus-specific T-cells recognized an array of epitopes after only 2 weeks expansion in
vivo. We therefore suggest that our ability to generate virus-specific CTL from CB against a
plethora of epitopes recognized by both CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells should minimize the risk of
viral escape and maximize therapeutic benefit on administration of these cells to cord blood
recipients at risk of severe viral disease. A clinical trial using CB-derived multi-virus
specific T cells for the prevention and treatment of viral infection after CBT was started at
BCM. (Clinical Trial #: NCT01017705).

Inclusion criteria at the time of Procurement:

- Patient with malignant or nonmalignant diseases who are candidates for transplant.

- Patients must have a CB unit (or units) matched with the patient at 4, 5, or 6/6 HLA
class I (serological) and II (molecular) antigens.

Inclusion criteria at the time of CTL infusion:

- Recipients of at least one unmanipulated cord blood unit fractionated into 2 fractions
(i.e. from a HLA matched or mismatched unrelated donor) transplant at risk for or with
CMV/Adenoviral disease or reactivation.

- Lansky/Karnofsky scores >60

- Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) greater than 500/ul.

- No evidence of GVHD > Grade II at time of enrollment.

- Life expectancy > 30 days

- Absence of severe renal disease (Creatinine > x 3 normal for age)

- Absence of severe hepatic disease. Direct bilirubin must be < 3 mg/dl and AST < 5x
upper limit of normal.

- Patient must be at least 30 days post transplant to be eligible to receive CTL

- Written informed consent and/or signed assent line from patient, parent or guardian.

- Patient not on Fi02 of >60%

Exclusion criteria at the time of Procurement

- Pregnant or lactating

- Patients with active central nervous system disease

- Patients with Karnofsky performance status <70%

- Patients with grade 3 or 4 or primary myelofibrosis

- Patients with suitable related donors

Exclusion criteria at the time of CTL infusion

- Pregnant or lactating

- Unable to wean steroids to ≤0.5 mg/kg/day prednisone.

- Patients with other uncontrolled infections (except CMV and/or adenovirus and/or
EBVemia).

- Patients with less than 50% donor chimerism in either peripheral blood or bone marrow
or patients with relapse of original disease.
We found this trial at
2
sites
111 Michigan Ave NW
Washington, District of Columbia
(202) 476-5000
Childrens National Medical Center As the nation’s children’s hospital, the mission of Children’s National Medical...
?
mi
from
Washington,
Click here to add this to my saved trials
1151 Silver Lake Road Northwest
Houston, Texas 55112
Principal Investigator: Amanda Olson, MD
?
mi
from
Houston, TX
Click here to add this to my saved trials