Clinical Significance of Shared T Cell Epitope Analysis in Early De Novo Donor-Specific Anti-HLA Antibody Production After Kidney Transplantation and Comparison With Shared B cell Epitope Analysis

By: Toshihide Tomosugi, Kenta Iwasaki, Shintaro Sakamoto, Matthias Niemann, Eric Spierings, Isao Nahara, Kenta Futamura, Manabu Okada, Takahisa Hiramitsu, Asami Takeda, Norihiko Goto, Shunji Narumi, Yoshihiko Watarai, Takaaki Kobayashi

Published: in Frontiers in Immunology 2021; Front. Immunol. 12: 924.

Patients: 578

Highlights:

  • In pre-sensitizing events, preformed donor-reactive CD4+ memory T cells may induce early immune responses after transplantation.
  • This study evaluates shared T cell epitopes (TEs) between the pre-sensitizing and donor HLA using an in silico assay, an alternative to estimate donor-reactive CD4+ memory T cells before transplantation.
  • The study concludes that the evaluation of shared TEs for estimating preformed donor-reactive CD4+ memory T cells may help predict the risk of early de novo DSA formation after kidney transplantation.