title: Adoptive transfer of Aspergillus-specific T cells as a novel anti-fungal therapy for hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients: Progress and challenges.
abstract: Although newer antifungal drugs have substantially altered the natural history of invasive aspergillosis, the disease still accounts for significant morbidity and mortality in hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients. Both the evidence supporting a protective role of T cells against this fungal pathogen and the documented efficacy of adoptive transfer of antigen-specific T cells for prophylaxis and treatment of viral infections post-transplant have stimulated much interest towards development of Aspergillus-specific T cells (Asp-STs) for adoptive immunotherapy in the allogeneic transplant setting. In contrast to the remarkable progress with virus-specific T cells, clinical development of fungus-specific T cells is still in its infancy. Several groups have characterized Asp-STs in healthy individuals and patients with malignant hematological diseases, while others sought to develop GMP-compliant methods of expanding or bioengineering Asp-STs ex vivo as immunotherapy. This review highlights the recent advances in this field, and discusses critical issues involved in development and protocol design of Asp-ST immunotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Hematology Department/Hematopoietic Cell-Transplantation Unit, Gene and Cell Therapy Center, "George Papanicolaou" Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece; Institute of Applied Biosciences, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece. Electronic address: papada_1@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Anastasia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Papadopoulou
authors.affiliation: Adult Hematology & Stem cell Transplant, King Fahad Specialist Hospital Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Panayotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kaloyannidis
authors.affiliation: Hematology Department/Hematopoietic Cell-Transplantation Unit, Gene and Cell Therapy Center, "George Papanicolaou" Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece; Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Evangelia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yannaki
authors.affiliation: Program for Cell Enhancement and Technologies for Immunotherapy, Center for Cancer and Immunology Research, and Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation, Children's National Health System, WA, United States.
authors.forename: Conrad Russell
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Cruz
mesh_terms: D019264:Adoptive Transfer; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001228:Aspergillosis / Q000628:therapy*; D001230:Aspergillus / Q000276:immunology*; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000935:Antifungal Agents; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents
keywords: Aspergillus; Aspergillus-specific T cells; Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; Immunotherapy; Invasive aspergillosis; T cells