Donor-derived regulatory dendritic cell infusion and early immunosuppressive drug withdrawal in living-donor liver transplantation: a phase I/IIa trial

Operational tolerance (OT) following complete immunosuppression withdrawal (ISW) is rare ( ~ 13%) in eligible adult liver transplant recipients when initiated 1-2-years post-transplant. Regulatory dendritic cells (DCregs) promote transplant tolerance in pre-clinical models and attenuate immune effector cells in humans. Here, we completed a first-in-human phase I/IIa trial (2-year recruitment; 5 ± 0.5 years follow-up) to evaluate the feasibility, safety and preliminary efficacy of pre-emptive donor-derived DCreg (ddDCreg) infusion 7-days pre-transplant in 15 prospective living-donor liver recipients. Two patients were excluded from analysis for reasons unrelated to the study. ISW began one year post-transplant in candidates with a quiescent/permissive protocol biopsy. ddDCreg infusions were safe, reproducible, and well-tolerated. One-year post-transplant, 8/13 patients were eligible for ISW, 4 achieved complete ISW, 3 remained off all immunosuppression for >1 year. These 3 remained drug-free for 3.0 ± 0.17-years, reflecting a 37.5% OT rate in ISW-eligible recipients. Given the exploratory nature of this trial, additional studies to evaluate efficacy are needed. ClinicalTrials.gov registration number NCT03164265.