Immunological reconstitution and infections after alloHCT - a comparison between post-transplantation cyclophosphamide, ATLG and non-ATLG based GvHD prophylaxis

Immunological reconstitution after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT) is critical for patient survival. We compared short- and long-term immune reconstitution and clinical endpoints in adult recipients of haploidentical or mismatched T cell replete peripheral blood stem cell transplants (PBSCT) with post-transplant cyclophosphamide as GvHD prophylaxis (PTCY, n = 68) to: (a) patients receiving matched unrelated grafts and anti-T lymphocyte globulin (ATLG) (MUD/ATLG, n = 280); (b) patients with a mismatched donor and ATLG (MM/ATLG, n = 54); and (c) recipients of matched related grafts without ATLG (MRD/NoATLG, n = 97). PTCY was associated with delayed neutrophil engraftment, low NK-cell counts on day 30 and reduced CD8+ cells on days 60-80. In terms of long-term reconstitution, PTCY recipients demonstrated significantly higher CD4+ counts from day 100-365, primarily derived from naïve T cells. Additionally, B-lymphocyte counts at one year were highest in the PTCY group. Early morbidity and mortality due to infectious complications (viral reactivation, (blood stream) infections) were most frequent in PTCY patients during the first three months. However, beyond three months, no PTCY patient suffered a fatal infection. Our study highlights the pattern of early immunodeficiency followed by robust long-term immune reconstitution in PTCY recipients, identifying critical time periods of risk that could be targeted to optimise patient survival and reduce infectious complications.