Patients enrolled on this study will have received a stem cell transplant. After a transplant, while the immune system grows back the patient is at risk for infection. Some viruses can stay in the body for life and if the immune system is weakened, like after a transplant, they can cause life threatening infections. Patients enrolled on this study will have had an infection with one or more of the following viruses - Epstein Barr virus (EBV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), BK virus, JC virus, adenovirus or HHV6 (Human Herpes Virus 6). Investigators want to see if they can use a kind of white blood cell called T cells to treat infections of these viruses after a transplant. Investigators have observed in other studies that treatment with specially trained T cells has been successful when the cells are made from the transplant donor. However as it takes 1-2 months to make the cells, that approach is not practical when a patient already has an infection. Investigators have now generated multivirus-specific T cells (VSTs) from the blood of healthy donors and created a bank of these cells. Investigators have previously successfully used frozen multivirus-specific T cells from healthy donors to treat virus infections after bone marrow transplant and now have improved the production method to make it safer and target more viruses. In this study, investigators want to find out if they can use these banked VSTs to fight infections caused by the viruses mentioned above.
These VST lines have been made at Baylor College of Medicine from donors for other transplant patients or other normal donors some of whom were from the National Marrow Donor Program. All donors have been screened with the standard blood bank donor questionnaire, medical history and testing for infectious disease by a doctor who is experienced in screening transplant donors. Only donors who have cleared this process and were deemed to be eligible provided blood for VST generation. The lines were made using a special process. To make the VSTs investigators mixed donor cells with small pieces of proteins, called peptides that come from adenovirus, CMV, EBV, BKV and HHV6. These peptides stimulate donor T cells that react against the viruses to grow and train the donor T cells to kill cells that are infected with CMV, EBV, adenovirus, BKV and HHV6. Once the investigators made sufficient numbers of VSTs, they tested them to make sure they would target cells infected with these viruses but not normal cells. Then the cells were frozen. For patients treated on this study, the VSTs will be thawed and injected into their intravenous line. The patient will remain in the clinic for at least one hour after the infusion. After the patient receives the cells, their transplant doctor will monitor the levels of the virus the patient is infected with in their blood. The investigators will also take blood to see how long the VSTs given to the patient last in their body. The patient will continue to be followed by their doctors after the injection. The patient will either be seen in the clinic or will be contacted by a research nurse to follow up for this study every week for 6 weeks then at 3, 6 and 12 months. The patient may have other visits for their standard care. The patient will also have regular blood tests done to follow their counts and the viral infection, but most of these will be done as part of their standard medical care. To learn more about the way the VSTs are working in the patient's body, up to an extra 30-40 ml (6-8 teaspoons) of blood will be taken before the infusion and then at 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 weeks and 3 months. Blood should come from the central intravenous line, and should not require extra needle sticks. All participants on this study will be infused with the same number (dose) of cells. If after the first treatment the patient has a persistent infection, we would discuss this with him/her and allow an option to receive more treatments. These additional treatments might be with cells from the same donor or if we feel that there is another donor's whose cells might be better for the patient, we would use cells from a different donor. This second product will be administered at the same dose level 28 days after the initial infusion, and subsequent infusions should be at least 14 days apart. After each VST infusion, the patient will be monitored as described above.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
82
Houston Methodist Hospital
Houston, Texas, United States
Texas Children's Hospital
Houston, Texas, United States
Number of Patients Where a Suitable VST Line Could be Found
Consented subjects will be screened for a suitable VST line to asses feasibility of finding a sufficiently matching VST line.
Time frame: within 24 hours of receiving recipient HLA information
Number of Patients With Acute GvHD Grades III-IV
Safety of VSTs based on patients with acute GvHD grades III-IV within 42 days of the last dose of VSTs. Acute GVHD grading was performed by the consensus conference criteria (1). Grade 0 represents no acute GvHD. Grade 4 represents the most severe acute GvHD.
Time frame: 42 days
Number of Patients With Grades 3-5 Non-hematologic Adverse Events Related to the T Cell Product
Safety of VSTs based on patients with grades 3-5 non-hematologic adverse events that are at least possibly related to the T cell product within 28 days of the last VST dose by NCI Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE), version 4.03. Grade 1 Mild; asymptomatic or mild symptoms. Grade 2 Moderate symptoms. Grade 3 Severe or medically significant but not immediately life-threatening. Grade 4 Life-threatening consequences. Grade 5 Death related to AE.
Time frame: 28 days
Number of Participants With a Viral Response at 42 Days
Viral response is defined as follows: Complete response: Return to normal range as defined by specific assay used and clinical signs and symptoms. Partial response: Decrease in viral load of at least 50% from baseline or 50% improvement of clinical signs and symptoms.
Time frame: 42 days
Number of Patients With Reconstitution of Antiviral Immunity (as Measured in Peripheral Blood)
Reconstitution of Antiviral Immunity as detected during the study as defined by virus-specific T cells \> 10 SFC/5x10e5 PBMCs for one virus or additive within the first 6 weeks after the first infusion. As determined by interferon-gamma ELISpot assay of PBMCs after stimulation with virus-specific peptides. Assay reflects antiviral activity in peripheral blood, not necessarily in the site of viral infection. Patients could therefore have a negative result in the presence of antiviral immunity.
Time frame: 12 months
Persistence of VSTs (in Peripheral Blood)
Number of patients with circulating T cells of confirmed 3rd party origin as measured by epitope mapping and other techniques. Infused versus endogenous cells were discriminated on the basis of peptide-epitope specificity in patients with adequate PBMC numbers and available reagents.
Time frame: Within 6 weeks
Association Between High HLA Matching and Viral Outcomes
Patients with 4-8 matching alleles (high HLA match) and complete or partial viral response (Viral response is defined as follows: Complete response: Return to normal range as defined by specific assay used and clinical signs and symptoms. Partial response: Decrease in viral load of at least 50% from baseline or 50% improvement of clinical signs and symptoms). See Outcome Measure 8 for low-matching outcomes.
Time frame: 6 weeks
Association Between Low HLA Matching and Viral Outcomes
Patients with 1-3 matching alleles (low HLA match) and complete or partial viral response (Viral response is defined as follows: Complete response: Return to normal range as defined by specific assay used and clinical signs and symptoms. Partial response: Decrease in viral load of at least 50% from baseline or 50% improvement of clinical signs and symptoms.) See Outcome Measure 7 for high-matching outcomes.
Time frame: 6 weeks
Number of Patients With a Clinical Response 3 Months After the First Dose of VSTs
Viral response is defined as follows: Complete response: Return to normal range as defined by specific assay used and clinical signs and symptoms. Partial response: Decrease in viral load of at least 50% from baseline or 50% improvement of clinical signs and symptoms.
Time frame: 3 months
Number of Patients With Non-target Viral Reactivations Within 12 Months
All CMV, EBV, adenovirus, BK virus, JC virus and HHV6 infections/reactivations, other than the primary infection, occurring within 12 months of VST infusion. These viral infections could have occurred after clearance of the infused VST.
Time frame: 12 months
Number of Patients With Secondary Graft Failure at 30 Days
Secondary graft failure is defined as initial neutrophil engraftment followed by subsequent decline in the ANC to less than 500/mm\^3 for three consecutive measurements on different days, unresponsive to growth factor therapy that persists for at least 14 days in the absence of a known cause such as relapse. Population includes patients with serious adverse experiences potentially related to VSTs who did not have an alternative explanation for graft failure, such as disseminated tuberculosis, or toxicity of other therapies eg. ganciclovir.
Time frame: 30 days
Number of Patients With Chronic GVHD
Number of patients with new or worsened chronic GVHD by standard criteria. By standard criteria, overall severity of chronic GvHD could be scored as none, mild, moderate, or severe.
Time frame: 12 months
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