Abraham, Roshini S.

Abstract Abstract 1362 The role of anti-tumor immunity is not well understood in CLL but does have the potential to be manipulated to improve treatment responses. We studied the predictive values of 43 immune phenotypes in patients enrolled in a clinical trial of early treatment of high risk CLL. The study enrolled 33 patients with CLL diagnosed using standard NCI-WG96 criteria who had previously untreated early - intermediate stage disease and did not meet NCI-WG96 guidelines for conventional treatment. High risk disease was defined as at least one of the following: 17p13 deletion; 11q22 deletion or unmutated IGHV together with either expression of ZAP-70 (>20%) or CD38 (>30%). Patients were treated with GM-CSF 250 mcg sc 3 × week × 5 weeks, alemtuzumab sc with dose escalation over 3 days then 30 mg/d 3 × week × 4 weeks, and rituximab 375 mg/m2 weekly × 4 weeks for a total duration of therapy of 5 weeks. We measured immune phenotypes (representing Tregs, naïve, effector memory, central memory T cells, B cells, NK cells, monocytes, among others) at the time of enrollment, through treatment and at 1 year after enrollment in 28 patients. We identified pre-treatment immune phenotypes that correlated with disease burden (as measured by the number of circulating B cells). Increased disease burden was correlated with increased absolute numbers of CD3+, CD8+, CD4+ T cells, NK (CD56+CD16+), Dr+CD8+ T cells, and Tregs (CD4+CD25+CD127+); p<0.001. The disease burden was inversely related to the number of circulating monocytes (p<0.01) and unrelated to the circulating number of naïve T cells. We repeated the pre-treatment phenotype correlation studies using the CD19+ cell counts 12 months after treatment for 13 patients who have completed the final analysis. Interestingly, the number of naïve CD4 and CD8 cells (CD4+RA+62L+CD27+ and CD8+RA+62L+CD27+) of the patient prior to treatment correlated with CD19+ cells 12 months after treatment (p=0.024 and p=0.002 respectively; n=13). Finally, we correlated pre-treatment immune phenotypes with time to progression. Again, an elevated T cell phenotype (CD4+RA+62L+CD27- as a percent of CD4+ cells) correlated to increased time to progression (p=0.04; n=28). It is noteworthy that the naïve T cell phenotype did not correlate with tumor burden prior to therapy. Thus, while pre-treatment lymphocyte expansion is commensurate with tumor burden in CLL, the frequency and numbers of naïve T cells prior to treatment has some predictive value to response to treatment. These data suggest that CLL induces the expansion of lymphocytes, suppresses monocytes with an induction in naïve T cells acting as an indicator of higher B cell counts at 12 months in patients with durable remissions. Disclosures: Zent: Genzyme: Research Funding; Genentech: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; G.S.K.: Research Funding.

Background. Control of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection after solid organ transplantation (SOT) requires a functional immune system. We assessed the association between quantitation and function of CMV-specific CD8+ T cells and CMV infection in SOT recipients. Methods. During a 10-year period, selected kidney, heart, lung, pancreas, liver, and composite tissue recipients were tested for CMV-specific CD8+ T cells immune competence (CMV-CD8+), as measured by enumeration, interferon-gamma production, and CD107a/b degranulation. Quantitative and functional data were used to assemble T-cell immune competence (TIC) score. CMV infection was diagnosed by polymerase chain reaction in blood and other samples or histopathology. Results. Of 130 patients tested, 59 had CMV infection or disease. The median onset to CMV infection was 10.5 months (interquartile range [IQR], 5.5–18.7). Gastrointestinal disease (28.8%), pneumonia (20.3%), and CMV syndrome (17%) were most common presentation. An impaired nonspecific or CMV-CD8+ TIC score was associated with tissue-invasive disease (hazard risk, 2.84, 95% confidence interval, 1.03–11.81; P = 0.04). Patients with impaired CMV-CD8+ TIC score had longer viremia duration (42.4 days vs 18.8 d; P < 0.001). Patients with impaired nonspecific or CMV-CD8+ TIC score had higher risk of relapse (68.8% vs 27.9%; hazard risk, 2.56; 95% confidence interval, 1.09–5.89; P = 0.03). Patients with CMV infection or disease had lower median absolute lymphocyte count (380 [IQR, 240–540] vs 940 [IQR, 551–1210] cells/mm 3 ; P < 0.0001) and CD4+ T cell count (29 cells/mm 3 [IQR, 1.3–116.0] vs 325.5 cells/mm 3 [IQR, 151.5–589.8]; P < 0.0001). Conclusions. Nonspecific and CMV-specific CD8+ T-cell function correlated with the course of CMV after SOT, and measuring these has the potential to assist in its clinical management.

Key Points DNA ligase 4 deficiency is a defect causing lymphopenia (T-B-NK+) and a radiosensitive severe combined immunodeficiency phenotype. Flow cytometric analysis of phosphorylation/dephosphorylation states of histone H2AX allows for in-depth lineage-specific assessment.

Emberger syndrome with underlying guanine-adenine-thymine-adenine 2 (GATA2) mutation is a rare disorder and very few successful nonmyeloablative allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCTs) have been reported. We report a case of Emberger syndrome with GATA2 mutation in a 9-year-old girl who presented with congenital sensorineural deafness, warts, lymphedema, and Myelodysplastic syndrome. Her sister had died of a similar illness. She underwent a nonmyeloablative matched related donor peripheral blood HSCT with rabbit antithymoglobulin (5 mg/kg), fludarabine (160 mg/m2), cyclophophamide (29 mg/kg), and total body irradiation (2 Gray). Graft versus host disease prophylaxis consisted of tacrolimus and mycophenolate moefetil. She had neutrophil engraftment on day+15 and fully donor chimerism by day+30. She developed limited chronic skin graft versus host disease on tapering off immunosuppression. She is disease free on day+475. The review of literature showed a total of 28 patients with GATA2 mutation have undergone HSCT mostly nonmyeloablative and overall survival is 75%. Nonmyeloablatove HSCT is feasible and safe for the patients with GATA2 mutation.