Immune Monitoring for Advanced Cell Therapy Trials in Transplantation: Which Assays and When?

Helen L Stark,Joanna Hester,Hayson C Wang,Alaa Alzhrani,Jasmina Kuburic,Fadi Issa

doi:10.3389/fimmu.2021.664244

Abstract

A number of immune regulatory cellular therapies, including regulatory T cells and mesenchymal stromal cells, have emerged as novel alternative therapies for the control of transplant alloresponses. Clinical studies have demonstrated their feasibility and safety, however developing our understanding of the impact of cellular therapeutics in vivo requires advanced immune monitoring strategies. To accurately monitor the immune response, a combination of complementary methods is required to measure the cellular and molecular phenotype as well as the function of cells involved. In this review we focus on the current immune monitoring strategies and discuss which methods may be utilized in the future.

Highlights

The long-term treatment of transplant patients with immunosuppressive drugs is associated with significant side effects including life-threatening infections, cancer development, and direct drug toxicity [1,2,3]
The majority of trials looking at advanced cellular therapies in transplantation have used some form of flow cytometry analysis as part of their immune monitoring [16, 18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25]
Todo et al used flow cytometry as part of the immune monitoring strategy for patients who underwent liver transplantation combined with Treg therapy [19]

Summary

Introduction

The long-term treatment of transplant patients with immunosuppressive drugs is associated with significant side effects including life-threatening infections, cancer development, and direct drug toxicity [1,2,3]. Using these standardized protocols provides results that can be compared between treatment groups and patients across multiple centers, vital for immune monitoring in clinical trials [17]. The majority of trials looking at advanced cellular therapies in transplantation have used some form of flow cytometry analysis as part of their immune monitoring [16, 18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25].

Results

Conclusion