- Michael P Pender1,–3
- Peter A Csurhes1,4
- Corey Smith3
- Leone Beagley3
- Kaye D Hooper1,2
- Meenakshi Raj2
- Alan Coulthard1,5
- Scott R Burrows1,3
- Rajiv Khanna1,3
1The University of Queensland, School of Medicine, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2Department of Neurology, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
3QIMR Centre for Immunotherapy and Vaccine Development and Department of Immunology, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
4The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
5Department of Medical Imaging, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Abstract
Defective control of Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) infection by cytotoxic CD8+ T cells might predispose to multiple sclerosis (MS) by allowing EBV-infected autoreactive B cells to accumulate in the central nervous system. We have treated a patient with secondary progressive MS with in vitro-expanded autologous EBV-specific CD8+ T cells directed against viral latent proteins. This adoptive immunotherapy had no adverse effects and the patient showed clinical improvement with reduced disease activity on magnetic resonance imaging and decreased intrathecal immunoglobulin production. This is the first report of the use of EBV-specific adoptive immunotherapy to treat MS or any other autoimmune disease.
- Received October 23, 2013.
- Accepted January 8, 2014.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (http://www.uk.sagepub.com/aboutus/openaccess.htm).
