Adoptive immune transfer from donors offers Anti-HBV protection to HBsAb-negative patients after Allo-HSCT

Jinhua Ren; QiaoXian Lin; Qi Chen; Jingjing Xu; Dabin Chen; Renli Chen; Kangni Lin; Haojie Zhu; Chenjing Ye; Xiaofeng Luo; Shaozhen Chen; Hui Kong; Qiong Lin; Nan Li; Xu Lin; Zhizhe Chen; Jianda Hu; Ting Yang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106290

Adoptive immune transfer from donors offers Anti-HBV protection to HBsAb-negative patients after Allo-HSCT

iScience. 2023 Feb 28;26(3):106290. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106290. eCollection 2023 Mar 17.

Authors

Jinhua Ren¹, QiaoXian Lin², Qi Chen³, Jingjing Xu¹, Dabin Chen¹, Renli Chen³, Kangni Lin⁴, Haojie Zhu¹, Chenjing Ye¹, Xiaofeng Luo¹, Shaozhen Chen¹, Hui Kong¹, Qiong Lin¹, Nan Li¹, Xu Lin⁵, Zhizhe Chen¹, Jianda Hu¹, Ting Yang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hematology, Fujian Institute of Hematology, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Hematology, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, 29 Xinquan Road, 350001, Fuzhou, Fujian, P. R. China.
² Department of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, 20 Cha Zhong Road, 350005, Fuzhou, Fujian, P. R. China.
³ Department of Hematology, Ningde municipal hospital of Ningde normal university, 13 Mindong Dong Road, 352100, Ningde, Fujian, P. R. China.
⁴ Department of Critical Care Medicine, Fujian Medical University Cancer Hospital & Fujian Cancer Hospital, 420 Fuma Road, Fuzhou, Fujian, P. R. China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Gastrointestinal Cancer (Fujian Medical University), Ministry of Education, Fuzhou 350122, China.

Abstract

Adoptive transfer of hepatitis B virus (HBV) immunity may occur following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Here, we investigated the adoptive transfer of HBV immunity in 112 patients without HBV surface antibody (HBsAb) (HBsAb-) at the time of their first allo-HSCT. After allo-HSCT, HBV-DNA（87.5%） and HBsAg（11.1%%）cleared in HBsAg+ patients. All HBsAg- patients acquired HBsAb immediately. Nevertheless, HBsAb titers subsequently declined, and 39/67 (58.2%) patients lost HBsAb during follow-up. The 5-year overall survival (OS) was better in patients who lost HBsAb. Multivariate analysis showed that the independent risk factors for OS were lack of cytomegalovirus (CMV) clearance, acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD), and no HBsAb loss. Overall, adoptive immune transfer offers anti-HBV protection to patients without HBsAb, as they acquire HBsAb and clear HBV-DNA and HBsAg, while HBsAb loss after allo-HSCT predicts better survival.

Keywords: Immunology; Virology.