Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is a major complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and a leading cause of non-relapse mortality (NRM). Currently, biology-based markers are lacking both for diagnosis and for monitoring the activity of cGVHD. Seventy patients who received HSCT were enrolled in a pilot study, including 21 without cGVHD and 49 with active or resolved cGVHD. Evaluations were comprised of clinical parameters including cGVHD severity and infections. Peripheral blood cells were analyzed by multi-parameter flow cytometry. The CD19+ B cell compartment was further subdivided by staining for surface IgD, CD21 and CD27. No significant differences in absolute B, T, and natural killer (NK) cell numbers were observed between the groups with and without cGVHD. However, elevated numbers (>15% of B lymphocytes) of immature/transitional CD19+/CD21(-) B cells were associated with the occurrence of severe infections (P = .003). Most significantly, all patients with active cGVHD and elevated numbers of CD19+/CD21(-) B lymphocytes experienced severe infections (P = .00016). The numbers of both non-class-switched and class-switched memory B cells were significantly lower in patients with active cGVHD when compared to patients who never experienced cGVHD (P = .002 and P = .001). Perturbation of circulating B lymphocyte compartments may serve as a novel biomarker for monitoring cGVHD activity and its impact on the immune system. A prospective study on unselected patients assessed serially for B cell reconstitution after HSCT is warranted.

The objective of this retrospective study was to evaluate results from voriconazole therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) in haematological patients in routine clinical practice. Between 2005 and 2010, 1228 blood samples were obtained from 264 haematological patients (median 3 samples/patient; range 1-27) receiving voriconazole for targeted/preemptive treatment of invasive aspergillosis (IA) (46.3% of samples), empirical therapy (12.9%) or prophylaxis (40.8%). A high-pressure liquid chromatography assay was used to analyse voriconazole concentrations. Clinical and laboratory data were analysed retrospectively. The median of the detected voriconazole plasma concentration was 1.00 μg ml(-1) (range <0.20-13.47 μg ml(-1)). Significant inter- and intra-patients variability of measured concentrations (81.9% and 50.5%) were identified. With the exception of omeprazole administration, there was no relevant relationship between measured voriconazole concentrations and drug dose, route administration, age, gender, CYP2C19*2 genotype, gastrointestinal tract abnormality, administration via nasogastric tube, serum creatinine, and liver enzymes. However, per patient analysis identified significant role of individual voriconazole dose and drug form change on measured plasma concentration. Measured voriconazole concentrations did not correlate with the treatment outcome of patients with IA. We only identified a limited number of adverse events related to voriconazole therapy; however, the median plasma concentration was not different from concentrations measured in samples without reported toxicity. Our retrospective study has suggested that routine monitoring of voriconazole plasma concentrations has probably only a limited role in daily haematological practice.

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SummaryThe interpretation of the role of HLA-DPB1 in unrelated haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is subject to discussion. We have investigated the role of HLA-DPB1 allele matching in HSCT outcomes in 161 recipients who were HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1 and -DQB1-matched with their unrelated donors at the allelic level (10/10). In addition, we analysed the association of polymorphic amino acid mismatches of DPB1 molecule with HSCT end-points, and a previously published permissiveness concept. HLA-DPB1 allele mismatches were significantly associated with an increased incidence of acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD) and worse overall survival (OS). The mismatch at amino acid position 69 significantly increased the risk for transplant-related mortality (TRM). Risk factors for aGvHD also included mismatches at positions 8, 9, 35, 76 and 84. This is to our knowledge, the first report of an in vivo effect of single amino acid mismatches on HSCT outcomes. In this study, grouping of allelic mismatches into permissive and non-permissive categories and their association with transplantation end-points was relevant for TRM but not for other clinical end-points.

Interactions of polymorphic killer Ig-like receptor (KIR) receptors with KIR ligands have been shown to modify the outcome of hematopoietic SCT (HSCT). The association of these genetic factors with different transplantation endpoints, however, varies substantially, depending on clinical and study setup variables. We aimed to assess whether KIR ligands, KIR genes and KIR haplotypes are associated with HSCT outcome of 124 patients with various hematological malignancies, transplanted with 12/ 12 HLA matched grafts from unrelated donors. For this purpose, patient and donor KIR gene and KIR ligand polymorphisms were determined and correlated with clinical data in simple and multiple models. We found that a missing HLA-C2 ligand for donor inhibitory KIR2DL1 was significantly associated with an increased risk of acute GVHD (aGVHD) (II-IV) (hazard ratio (HR) ¼ 2.23, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.21-4.10, P ¼ 0.010), as were the AA KIR haplotypes in patients and donors in HLA-C1CX (HR ¼ 2.37, 95% CI: 1.16-4.84, P ¼ 0.018) and in HLA-Bw4 À (HR ¼ 3.20, 95% CI: 1.35-7.60, P ¼ 0.008) patients. On the contrary, transplantation of HLA-C1C2 patients with KIR2DS2 positive grafts were associated with a decreased risk of aGVHD (II-IV) (HR ¼ 0.24, 95% CI: 0.07-0.85, P ¼ 0.027). Thus, our single center study provides evidence for the modification of aGVHD risk by KIRs and their ligands.