T cell immunotherapeutic populations control viral infections in bone marrow transplant recipients

Immunotherapies designed to prevent infection serve as an increasingly important adjunct to bone marrow transplantation (BMT). T cell immunotherapies are particularly useful for the control of virus infections, provided that T cell populations are free of graft-vs-host (GVH) activity. In this review, we describe positive and negative selection methods with which donor T cell populations devoid of GVH activity can be prepared for transfer to the immunodeficient BMT recipient. The support of patients with T cell immunotherapies may ultimately revolutionize BMT, elevating the procedure from a salvage to a front-line treatment strategy for otherwise fatal disorders.