Functional Non Specific Immunity Monitoring After Kidney Transplantation Using an Interferon Gamma Test, QuantiFERON Monitor®

The best renal replacement therapy is kidney transplantation. It improves end-stage renal kidney disease (ESRD) patients quality of life and increases their survival, but still remains risky. Morbidity in kidney transplantation is dominated by two main complications : acute graft rejection and infections. According to literature, acute rejection appears in more than 10% of kidney graft recipients. The first month after transplantation is frequently affected by bacterial infections such as pneumopathies (4.5 to 16%), urinary tract infections (22.7 to 56.7 %), surgical site infections (7.3 to 18.5%) and bacteremia (3.5 to 4.6%). Then, during the first year, infections, most of them opportunist ones, are essentially due to cytomegalovirus (8%), BK virus (most than 10%) and herpes simplex reactivation (most than 50%). Those immunosuppressed patients can also develop community acquired infections : respiratory tract infections (flu or bacterial pneumonias) or urinary tract infections. Therefore, long-term anticalcineurin use can lead to chronic graft dysfunction. To maintain an accurate balance between rejection and infection, immunosuppressive therapy must to be used with caution and kept into a tight spectrum. To guide physicians maintaining this balance, therapeutic drug monitoring is performed in routine.

An objective marker for cellular immune response, based on cellular immunodeficiency status specific for each patient could, guide a personalized immunosuppressive treatment. The investigators now dispose of a new test measuring interferon gamma production after T cells and Natural Killers (NK) in vitro stimulation : QuantiFERON Monitor® (QFM). They hypothesized QFM monitoring could improve management after kidney transplantation providing functional immune data to optimize balance between rejection and infection.

The best renal replacement therapy is kidney transplantation. It improves end-stage renal kidney disease (ESRD) patients quality of life and increases their survival, but still remains risky. Morbidity in kidney transplantation is dominated by two main complications : acute graft rejection and infections. According to literature, acute rejection appears in more than 10% of kidney graft recipients. The first month after transplantation is frequently affected by bacterial infections such as pneumopathies (4.5 to 16%), urinary tract infections (22.7 to 56.7 %), surgical site infections (7.3 to 18.5%) and bacteremia (3.5 to 4.6%). Then, during the first year, infections, most of them opportunist ones, are essentially due to cytomegalovirus (8%), BK virus (most than 10%) and herpes simplex reactivation (most than 50%). Those immunosuppressed patients can also develop community acquired infections : respiratory tract infections (flu or bacterial pneumonias) or urinary tract infections. Therefore, long-term anticalcineurin use can lead to chronic graft dysfunction. To maintain an accurate balance between rejection and infection, immunosuppressive therapy must to be used with caution and kept into a tight spectrum. To guide physicians maintaining this balance, therapeutic drug monitoring is performed in routine.

An objective marker for cellular immune response, based on cellular immunodeficiency status specific for each patient could, guide a personalized immunosuppressive treatment. The investigators now dispose of a new test measuring interferon gamma production after T cells and Natural Killers (NK) in vitro stimulation : QuantiFERON Monitor® (QFM). They hypothesized QFM monitoring could improve management after kidney transplantation providing functional immune data to optimize balance between rejection and infection.

They aim to assess whether QFM could be an objective biomarker to predict infection and rejection risks after kidney transplantation.