Adenovirus infections following haematopoietic cell transplantation : is there a role for adoptive immunotherapy?

Adenovirus has been recognised as an important pathogen in BMT recipients, especially in patients with GVHD and those receiving T cell-depleted allografts. We report adenovirus infections from an ongoing surveillance study in four patients after a non-myeloablative transplant and their improved outcome following withdrawal of immunosuppression in two patients and donor lymphocyte infusion for relapsed disease in the others. We discuss the control of adenovirus infections following immune manipulations and the feasibility of adoptive immunotherapy for post-transplant adenovirus infections.