T cell assay for BK virus infection in transplant patients

BK病毒在英国成年人群中流行。虽然它在健康人身上很少或根本不会引起疾病，但已知这种病毒在肾脏中尤其存在。病毒的再激活与免疫抑制状况有关，这种再激活发生在约20%的肾移植患者身上，并可能导致移植器官的严重损害。虽然病毒本身的水平可以测量，但目前还没有可用的测试表明患者是否能够通过他们的T细胞反应成功地抵抗感染。因此，该项目旨在证明设计这种测试的原则，以便更有效地管理肾移植受者的感染，从而减少由于这种感染而导致的移植器官损失。

BK virus is endemic in the UK adult population. Although it causes little or no disease in healthy people the virus is known to persist in the kidney in particular. Reactivation of the virus is linked with immune suppressive conditions and this reactivation occurs in around 20% of kidney transplant patients and can lead to significant damage to the transplanted organ. While the level of the virus itself can be measured there is currently no test available that indicates whether or not the patient is able to fight off the infection successfully through their T cell response. This project is therefore aimed at proving the principle for the design of such a test so that kidney transplant recipients can be managed for the infection more effectively, leading to less transplanted organ loss due to this infection.