Abstract

Introduction: Solid organ transplant patients require appropriate immunosuppression to sufficiently control the allorecognition of the graft. Two tests, the QuantiFERON Monitor (QFM) and the Torque teno virus load (TTVL) provide an option to monitor the strength of immunosuppression. Materials and methods: TTVL and QFM were simultaneously determined in kidney transplant patients. Clinical data, microbiological and histopathological findings were collected from the patients’ medical records. Results: 128 TTVL and QFM values were quantified in 107 patients. 69 patients (54%) had recurrent infections in the previous 6 months, 19 (15%) had malignancies, 47 (37%) had a recent kidney biopsy and among them 17 (36%) had histologically proven graft rejection. Results showed that there was no significant correlation between TTVL and QFM (ρ = –0.169, p = 0.061). In patients with histologically proven rejection, TTVL was significantly lower than in patients without rejection (3.64 ± 2.45 vs. 5.02 ± 1.67 log₁₀ copies/mL, p = 0.026), but there was no difference between the groups in QFM (1.63 ± 0.67 vs. 1.55 ± 0.80 log₁₀ IU/mL, p = 0.735). Patients with known malignancy had lower TTVL compared to patients without it (p = 0.041). No statistically significant difference was observed in TTVL and patients with or without infections (p = 0.278). QFM was not different in patients with or without infection or malignancy. Conclusion: TTVL as an immune marker was associated with transplant rejection. There were no clinically significant associations between QFM and rejection and TTVL or QFM with infections and malignancies. Further prospective studies should be performed to confirm these results.


Author Details

Authors

• Špela Borštnar¹,²
• Željka Večerić-Haler¹,²
• Anja Ponikvar Ležaić¹
• Neva Bezeljak¹,²
• Miha Arnol¹,²
• Mario Poljak³
• Maja M. Lunar³
• Gregor Mlinšek¹,²

Departments

• ¹ Department of Nephrology, University Medical Center Ljubljana,
• ² Faculty of Medicine, and
• ³ Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Address

Gregor Mlinšek, MD, PhD, Department of Nephrology, University Medical Center Ljubljana, Zaloška 7, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Email: [email protected]

Citation