Comparison of Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Spot and CMV Quantiferon Gamma Interferon-Releasing Assays in Assessing Risk of CMV Infection in Kidney Transplant Recipients

Abstract

Assessing cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific cell-mediated immunity (CMI) represents an appealing strategy for identifying transplant recipients at risk of infection. In this study, we compared two gamma interferon-releasing assays (IGRAs), Quantiferon-CMV and CMV enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot (ELISPOT), to determine the ability of each test to predict protective CMVspecific T-cell responses. Two hundred twenty-one Quantiferon-CMV and ELISPOT tests were conducted on 120 adult kidney transplant recipients (KTRs), including 100 CMV-seropositive transplant recipients (R ؉ ) and 20 CMV-seronegative transplant recipients of a CMV-positive donor (D ؉ /R ؊ ). As a control cohort, 39 healthy adult subjects (including 33 CMV-seropositive and 6 CMV-seronegative subjects) were enrolled. CMV IgG serology was used as a reference for both tests. In the CMV-seropositive individuals, the ELISPOT and Quantiferon-CMV assays provided 46% concordance with the serology, 12% discordance, 18% disagreement between ELISPOT or Quantiferon-CMV and the serology, and 24% gray areas when one or both tests resulted in weak positives. None of the CMV-seronegative subjects showed detectable responses in the ELISPOT or the Quantiferon-CMV test. In transplant recipients, both the ELISPOT and Quantiferon-CMV assays positively correlated with each other and negatively correlated with CMV DNAemia in a significant way (P < 0.

Comparison of the Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Spot and CMV QuantiFERON Cell-Mediated Immune Assays in CMV-Seropositive and -Seronegative Pregnant and Nonpregnant Women

“…A substantial degree of variability between the assays emerged in the results for CMV-seropositive pregnant and nonpregnant, primarily and nonprimarily infected women. The interassay heterogeneity was also observed for healthy subjects and kidney transplant recipients (30). Potential sources of heterogeneity in the CMV-infected and CMV-seropositive group may be ascribed to the interassay differences, such as the comparison of CMI in a volume of blood (CMV QuantiFERON) versus a given number of cells (CMV ELISPOT).…”

Testing for Cytomegalovirus in Pregnancy

“…Enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot (ELISPOT) and QuantiFERON (QFT) assays are the most standardized and employed platforms and were recently used to detect CMV-specific CMI in solid organ and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients (27,28). Although their performances for CMV CMI were very similar, interassay differences were found (29,30). Recently, several studies assessed the role of CMV CMI in pregnant women.…”

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Spot Assay but Not CMV QuantiFERON Assay Is a Novel Biomarker To Determine Risk of Congenital CMV Infection in Pregnant Women

“…Moreover, the CMV QuantiFERON assay detects IFN-␥ in a volume of ϳ1 ml of whole blood, while the CMV ELISPOT assay detects IFN-␥ secreted by ϳ2 ϫ 10 5 PBMCs (22, 23). Recent studies suggest that the CMV ELISPOT and CMV QuantiFERON assays may display large variability on an individual basis (24,25).In order to have a more comprehensive view of the maternal factors associated with cCMV, this study also investigated maternal parameters such as maternal age, viremia, viruria, and CMV immunoglobulin G (IgG) avidity.(The data in this study were partly presented at the Congenital CMV Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 2015. )…”

“…Moreover, the CMV QuantiFERON assay detects IFN-␥ in a volume of ϳ1 ml of whole blood, while the CMV ELISPOT assay detects IFN-␥ secreted by ϳ2 ϫ 10 5 PBMCs (22, 23). Recent studies suggest that the CMV ELISPOT and CMV QuantiFERON assays may display large variability on an individual basis (24,25).…”