Secondary Prophylaxis After CMV Disease in Kidney Transplant Patients Targeted by γδ T Cells Immunomonitoring.

In kidney transplant patients, CMV infection remains the leading infectious cause of morbidity and mortality. Clinical and virological relapses are common and are involved in chronic graft dysfunction. To date, it is not certain that secondary prophylaxis allows reducing these relapses, although this prophylaxis is part of the current recommendations. Our team has recently shown that the expansion of γδ T cells in peripheral blood during CMV infection was correlated with the absence of virological and clinical relapses. Indeed, the absence of relapse was associated in 94.7% of cases with the presence of γδ T cells expansion while relapses occurred in about 90% of cases in the absence of γδ T cells expansion. These results suggest that the indication and duration of secondary prophylaxis after the curative treatment of CMV infection in kidney transplantation could be guided by the immune surveillance of γδ T cells.