R-MVST Cells for Treatment of Viral Infections

Description

Starting from childhood, majority of healthy humans are exposed to common viruses such as CMV, EBV, BK and related human polyomaviruses and herpes viruses. Under normal circumstances those infections are well controlled by the adaptive immune system, but never eliminated. Instead, they are fairly inactive and produce relatively few consequences or symptoms. However, when T cell mediated immunity is suppressed, those dormant viruses reactivate and can cause a significant end-organ or severe systemic syndrome. This viral reactivation contributes to morbidity and mortality in recipients of allogeneic stem cell transplant (HCT) and solid organ transplants (SOT), and can affect many other patients who receive immunosuppressive therapies or have underlying pathology that affects T cell function, including patients with autoimmune diseases, congenital immunodeficiencies or HIV/AIDS. As a result of a weakened immune response, conventional antiviral prophylaxis or treatment with acyclovir and ganciclovir/foscarnet (for CMV) or rituximab (against EBV) are not always effective.

The main purpose of this study is to test whether giving an experimental cell product can treat the viral infection in patients who have conditions that cause poor function of their immune system, such as infections caused by viruses such as Cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), BK virus, or adenovirus. The cell product is called rapidly generated virus specific T cells or R-MVST.