Immune Response to Polyomavirus Infection

描述（由申请人提供）：多瘤病毒BK肾病是一种越来越被认可的器官移植并发症。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对BK病毒感染的反应。我们提议的最终长期目标是产生数据，这将有助于开发针对这种疾病的疫苗和免疫治疗方案。本研究将有以下具体目的：(1)确定供体和宿主受体血清学状况对肝肾移植术后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BK病毒感染时抗bkv t -辅助性（Th）反应。(3)表征(a)健康受试者、(b)肾移植受者和(c)肝移植受者对BK病毒的t细胞毒性细胞反应。在本研究过程中产生的信息将允许在晚期和潜在不可逆的组织损伤之前早期诊断BK病毒感染。提出的研究也将促进更好地了解引发和延续病毒性肾病的生物学因素。反过来，这将帮助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.