AUTHOR=Shindiapina Polina , Pietrzak Maciej , Seweryn Michal , McLaughlin Eric , Zhang Xiaoli , Makowski Mat , Ahmed Elshafa Hassan , Schlotter Sarah , Pearson Rebecca , Kitzler Rhonda , Mozhenkova Anna , Le-Rademacher Jennifer , Little Richard F. , Akpek Gorgun , Ayala Ernesto , Devine Steven M. , Kaplan Lawrence D. , Noy Ariela , Popat Uday R. , Hsu Jack W. , Morris Lawrence E. , Mendizabal Adam M. , Krishnan Amrita , Wachsman William , Williams Nita , Sharma Nidhi , Hofmeister Craig C. , Forman Stephen J. , Navarro Willis H. , Alvarnas Joseph C. , Ambinder Richard F. , Lozanski Gerard , Baiocchi Robert A. TITLE=Immune Recovery Following Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in HIV-Related Lymphoma Patients on the BMT CTN 0803/AMC 071 Trial JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=12 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.700045 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2021.700045 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=

We report a first in-depth comparison of immune reconstitution in patients with HIV-related lymphoma following autologous hematopoietic cell transplant (AHCT) recipients (n=37, lymphoma, BEAM conditioning), HIV(-) AHCT recipients (n=30, myeloma, melphalan conditioning) at 56, 180, and 365 days post-AHCT, and 71 healthy control subjects. Principal component analysis showed that immune cell composition in HIV(+) and HIV(-) AHCT recipients clustered away from healthy controls and from each other at each time point, but approached healthy controls over time. Unsupervised feature importance score analysis identified activated T cells, cytotoxic memory and effector T cells [higher in HIV(+)], and naïve and memory T helper cells [lower HIV(+)] as a having a significant impact on differences between HIV(+) AHCT recipient and healthy control lymphocyte composition (p<0.0033). HIV(+) AHCT recipients also demonstrated lower median absolute numbers of activated B cells and lower NK cell sub-populations, compared to healthy controls (p<0.0033) and HIV(-) AHCT recipients (p<0.006). HIV(+) patient T cells showed robust IFNγ production in response to HIV and EBV recall antigens. Overall, HIV(+) AHCT recipients, but not HIV(-) AHCT recipients, exhibited reconstitution of pro-inflammatory immune profiling that was consistent with that seen in patients with chronic HIV infection treated with antiretroviral regimens. Our results further support the use of AHCT in HIV(+) individuals with relapsed/refractory lymphoma.