Development of an EliSPOT assay for HSV-1 and clinical validation in lung transplant patients

Cellular immunity plays a major role in the control of HSV-1 infection/reactivation with a potential impact on the clinical-therapeutic management of immunocompromised patients, such as transplant recipients. Herein, we quantitatively evaluated T-cell response directed at HSV-1 by a newly developed IFN-γ EliSPOT assay in 53 patients (including 45 lung transplant recipients and eight subjects in waiting list). Overall, 62.2% of transplant patients and 62.5% of subjects on the waiting list showed a response to HSV-1 with no significant difference in the level of virus-specific cellular immunity. Response tended to be lower in the first three months posttransplantation with a progressive recovery of pretransplantation status by the second year and in the presence of HSV-1 DNA positivity in bronchoalveolar lavage. As expected, no response was found in seronegative patients. No significant difference in the level of response according to IgM and IgG status was found. Further studies are required to define the role of HSV-1 specific immune response for the clinical-therapeutic management of lung transplant patients and in other clinical settings and to define cut-off levels discriminating between absence/low and strong response to be related to the risk of viral infection/reactivation.