Immune Response to Polyomavirus Infection

描述（由申请人提供）：多瘤病毒BK肾病是一种日益被认识到的器官移植并发症。它与显著的发病率和20-50%的移植物丢失风险相关。我们建议研究免疫系统如何对BK病毒感染作出反应。我们提案的最终长期目标是生成数据，这将有助于开发针对这种疾病的疫苗和免疫治疗方案。本研究的具体目的是：（1）确定供、受体血清学状态对肝肾移植后BK病毒感染临床病程的影响。(2)表征（a）健康受试者、（B）肾移植受者和（c）肝移植受者中BK病毒感染的抗BKV辅助性T细胞（Th）应答（3）表征（a）健康受试者、（B）肾移植受者和（c）肝移植受者中BK病毒的T细胞毒性细胞应答。本研究过程中生成的信息将允许在晚期和潜在不可逆组织损伤之前早期诊断BK病毒感染。这项研究还将促进对引发和维持病毒性肾病的生物因素的更好理解。反过来，这将有助于我们更好地预测个体患者的临床病程，并帮助设计更有效的抗病毒治疗形式。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Polyomavirus BK nephropathy is an increasingly recognized complication of organ transplantation. It is associated with significant morbidity & 20-50% risk of graft loss. We propose to study how the immune system reacts to BK virus infection. The ultimate long-term goal of our proposal is to generate data, which will help in the development of vaccines & immunotherapy protocols against this disease. The study will have the following specific aims: (1) To determine the influence of donor and host recipient serologic status on the clinical course of BK virus infection after liver and kidney transplantation. (2) To characterize the anti-BKV T-helper (Th) response in BK virus infection in (a) healthy subjects, (b) kidney transplant recipients, and (c) liver transplant recipients (3) To characterize the T-cytotoxic cell response to BK virus in (a) healthy subjects, (b) kidney transplant recipients, and (c) liver transplant recipients. The information generated during the course of this study will permit earlier diagnosis of BK virus infection, prior to advanced and potentially irreversible tissue injury. The research proposed will also promote better understanding of the biologic factors that initiate and perpetuate viral nephropathy. This, in turn, will help us to better predict the clinical course of the disease in individual patients, and help devise more effective forms of anti-viral therapy.