Adjuvant Peptide Pulsed Dendritic Cell Vaccination in Addition to T Cell Adoptive Immunotherapy for Cytomegalovirus Infection in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Recipients

Adoptive cellular immunotherapy has been shown to be effective in the management of cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation and disease. Whether adjuvant dendritic cell (DC) vaccination will provide additional benefit in prophylaxis or treatment of CMV in hematoietic cell transplantation (HSCT) recipients is unknown. In this study, we administered prophylactic CMV-peptide specific T cell infusions, followed by 2 doses of intradermal CMV peptide-pulsed DC vaccine, to 4 HSCT recipients. There were no immediate adverse events associated with T cell infusion or DC vaccinations. One of the 4 patients developed grade III acute gut graft-versus-host disease. Immune reconstitution against CMV was detected in all 4 patients. Patients receiving CMV peptide-specific T cells and DC vaccination had peak immune reconstitution at least 10 days after the second DC vaccination. In summary, combining DC vaccine with T cell infusion appears feasible, although further study is required to ascertain its safety and efficacy in augmenting the effects of infusing donor-derived CMV-specific T cells.