Early Post-Transplant Torquetenovirus Viremia Predicts Cytomegalovirus Reactivations In Solid Organ Transplant Recipients

Abstract

Monitoring the human virome has been recently suggested as a promising and novel area of research for identifying new biomarkers which would help physicians in the management of transplant patients. Imbalance of the immune system in transplant recipients has a significant impact on replication of Torquetenovirus (TTV), the most representative and abundant virus of human virome. TTV kinetic was studied by real-time PCR in 280 liver or kidney transplant recipients who underwent different drug regimens to maintain immunosuppression. During one-year post-transplant follow-up, TTV viremia fluctuated irrespective of transplanted organ type but consistent with the immunosuppression regimen. TTV kinetic in patients who manifested cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation within the first four months post-transplant differed from that observed in patients who did not experience CMV complications. Importantly, plasma TTV load measured between day 0 and 10 post-transplant was significantly higher in CMV DNA positive than in CMV DNA negative patients. TTV viremia above 3.45 log DNA copies/ml within the first 10 days post-transplant correlates with higher propensity to CMV reactivation following transplantation. This study provides further evidence for using early post-transplant TTV viremia to predict CMV reactivation in liver or kidney transplant recipients.

Torque Teno Virus as a Potential Biomarker for Complications and Survival After Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

“…Over the past decade several groups investigated the kinetics of TTV after transplantation and asked the question whether TTV titers could serve as a comprehensive marker of posttransplant immunity. Data from solid organ transplantation where TTV titers correlate with the strength of IS (16)(17)(18)(19) and predict infections (18,(25)(26)(27)35) as well as rejections (19, 21, 23-25, 35, 36) are encouraging. Unfortunately, the situation after HSCT seems to be more complex probably owed to the vast heterogeneity of patients and treatment modalities.…”

“…For these reasons several studies assessed the quantification of TTV titers as a precise and straightforward method to measure the patient's immunity. TTV levels after solid organ transplantation (16)(17)(18)(19)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27) or HSCT (28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34) correlate with the intensity of immunosuppressive treatment and are associated with complications such as rejection (19, 21, 23-25, 35, 36), infections (18, 25-27, 33, 35) or GVHD (30)(31)(32)37).…”

Seroprevalence of Torque Teno Virus in hemodialysis and renal transplant patients in Australia: A cross‐sectional study

“…We quantified TTV DNA in plasma using a real-time TaqMan qPCR with plasmid standard (10 8 copies to 10 1 copies) approach as describe by Maggi and colleagues. 20…”

Exploring the Relevance of Senotherapeutics for the Current SARS-CoV-2 Emergency and Similar Future Global Health Threats

“…The increased grade of inflammation associated with this phenomenon and the association with mortality of TTV and CMV in the elderly highlights the possible involvement of cellular senescence. In this context, TTV viremia can predict CMV reactivation [58] and a mechanistic link between CMV and accumulating senescent cells has already been proposed [59]. The CMV serostatus plays also a prominent role in determining the magnitude of response to influenza vaccination [60].…”