Pitt receives $14.5 million from NIH to improve pediatric heart transplantatio...( rial of a cellular immunotherapy for th...),Health

rial of a cellular immunotherapy for the prevention and treatment of post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD). Because anti-rejection drugs heavily suppress the immune system, almost one in 10 pediatric heart transplant recipients will develop these tumors by seven years after transplantation. Most PTLD cases evolve from an EBV infection. David T. Rowe, Ph.D., associate professor of infectious diseases and microbiology at GSPH, is principal investigator of this project, which will track EBV viral loads and the behavior of the virus leading to PTLD. Diana Metes, M.D., research assistant professor of surgery and immunology, School of Medicine and Starzl Transplantation Institute, will study how the immune system allows the development of tumors to occur. Such studies will result in a trial of a therapy using a patient's own immune system T cells that will be activated to recognize and fight EBV. Conventional treatment of PTLD involves reducing immunosuppression until tumors shrink, but organ rejection can result and sudden death is a risk.

A multi-center study looking at multiple genetic markers that may be predictive of an individual's transplant outcome and help explain why African Americans do worse than other groups of patients. Such an approach would allow clinicians to individualize treatments, diminishing the chances of rejection and minimizing drug-related complications. Adriana Zeevi, Ph.D., professor of pathology and surgery at the School of Medicine and the Starzl Transplantation Institute, is principal investigator. The study will involve 750 pediatric heart transplant recipients from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Loma Linda University, Washington University, Columbia University, Stanford University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Genetic studies will be performed at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Southern California.

Four cores will support the clinical projects. Dr. Webber will lead
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Contact: Lisa Rossi
RossiL@upmc.edu
412-647-3555
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
13-Feb-2004


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