Unlike the patient's T cells, which are often functionally impaired by the cancer or its treatment, donor T cells are fully functional and are more likely to mount significant response to vaccination. The immediate goals of these studies are to understand the mechanisms of the immune response to vaccines after alloBMT, which can be useful in the development of strategies to vaccinate BMT recipients against underlying malignancy, pathogenic viruses and fungi. The long-term goal of these studies is to translate laboratory research on tumor vaccines and alloBMT into improved therapies of cancer. Allogeneic as compared to autologous HCT patients suffer increased morbidity and mortality from infectious complications. The reasons for these differences are not completely understood.
Lymphocytes control antigen-specific immune responses and their outcomes.
Functional restoration of the lymphocyte compartment post-HCT is dependent upon de novo lymphocyte development, transfer of mature immune competent lymphocytes, and regulation of lymphocytes by the mechanisms of peripheral tolerance. This proposal will examine both quantitative and functional recovery of the lymphocyte lineage post transplantation. The approach is to study in pre-clinical mouse models transplantation of hematopoietic grafts of defined cell composition. The CMV and EBV specific immunity of these patients will be measured at regular intervals post-infusion. After Bone Marrow Transplantation With or Without Donor Leukocyte Infusion.