PROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY OF TORQUE TENO VIRUS (TTV) VIRAL LOAD KINETICS AND THE ASSOCIATION WITH GRAFT REJECTION IN RENAL TRANSPLANT PATIENTS

REYES NOELIA SOLEDAD; LAHAM GUSTAVO; BOCCIA NATALIA; GARCIA GONZALO; JARA RAQUEL; HERMIDA ELIANA; RICARTE CARMEN; DIAZ CARLOS; SOLER PUJOL GERVASIO; POLETTA FERNANDO ; ECHAVARRIA MARCELA

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL VIROLOGY : THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE PAN AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CLINICAL VIROLOGY.

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2023

1386-6532

IntroductionGraft survival is mainly determined by rejections and infectious complications in transplantrecipients. Torque Teno Virus (TTV), a nonpathogenic and ubiquitous single-stranded DNA virus, has been proposed as a biomarker of the immune status in transplant patients.This study aimed to determine the correlation between a Home-Brew TTV PCR and R-GENE®PCR; the TTV viral load kinetics in renal transplant recipients and the association with graft rejection.Materials and methodsProspective cohort study on 107 adult renal transplant recipients. TTV viral load was determined in746 plasma samples collected before and after renal transplantation by a Home-Brew PCR and acommercial PCR (R-GENE®PCR). Associations of TTV viral load with graft rejections were analyzed.ResultsAgreement of both PCR assays was 93.2% and Pearson correlation coefficient was r: 0.902 (95%CI:0.8881-0.9149, p<0.0001).TTV viral load kinetics showed an initial gradual increase reaching a peak at 3 months. This highestvalue was followed by a slightly decrease, reaching a plateau significantly higher than the initialbaseline at 6 months (p<0.0001).Between (181-270) days post-transplantation, TTV median viral load in patients with graft rejectionwas significantly lower, 3.59 Log 10 copies/mL (by Home-Brew PCR) and 3.10 Log 10 copies/mL (by R-GENE®PCR) compared to patients without graft rejection (6.14 and 5.96 Log 10 copies/mL,respectively).ConclusionsSignificantly lower TTV viral load was observed in patients with renal rejection occurring at a median of 243 days post-transplantation. Given the dynamic behavior of TTV viral load post-transplantation, cut-off values for risk stratification to predict rejection might be determined in relation to the post-transplant period.