Posoleucel effective for refractory viral infections\/disease, with overall response rate of 95 percent six weeks after treatment<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter<\/b><\/p>\n
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TUESDAY, Jan. 17, 2023 (HealthDay News) — For recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) with refractory viral infections\/disease, the T-cell therapy posoleucel is well tolerated and effective, according to a study published online Jan. 11 in Clinical Cancer Research<\/em>.<\/p>\n Thomas Pfeiffer, Ph.D., from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues conducted an open-label phase 2 trial to examine the feasibility and safety of posoleucel in 58 adult and pediatric allo-HCT recipients infected with one or more of adenovirus, BK virus (BKV), cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, human herpes virus-6, and JC virus. Infections were unresponsive to, or patients could not tolerate, standard antiviral therapies.<\/p>\n The researchers found that posoleucel was well tolerated, with no evidence of cytokine release syndrome or other infusion-related toxicities. During the trial, two and one patient (3.4 and 1.7 percent) developed grade 2 and grade 3 graft-versus-host disease, respectively. At six weeks after the first posoleucel infusion, the overall response rate was 95 percent, with a 97 percent reduction in median plasma viral load. Ten (83 percent) of the 12 patients with two or more target viral infections identified at study entry had a clinical response for all evaluable viruses. Seventy-four percent of the 23 patients treated for refractory BKV-associated hemorrhagic cystitis had symptom resolution and macroscopic hematuria by six weeks after infusion.<\/p>\n “Results of our trial suggest that posoleucel is a safe and effective therapy for the treatment of severe viral infections following allogeneic HCT,” the authors write. “Its use might aid in alleviating the morbidity and mortality associated with post-HCT viral infections and helps avoid the nephrotoxic and myelosuppressive side effects associated with the use of conventional antiviral medications.”<\/p>\n Several authors disclosed financial ties to biopharmaceutical companies, including AlloVir, which manufactures posoleucel and contributed funding to the study.<\/p>\n