Belatacept-related cytomegalovirus infection: Advocacy for tailored immunosuppression based on individual assessment of immune fitness.

Belatacept, a fusion protein combining cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) and the Fc region of human IgG1, is increasingly used as a calcineurin inhibitor-sparing regimen in patients with chronic graft dysfunction. Older kidney transplant recipients, particularly from expanded criteria donors, may be switched to belatacept due to poor renal recovery. However, late-onset cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation is increasingly reported with this treatment, especially in older patients with graft dysfunction.

Initial empirical antibiotic therapy in kidney transplant recipients with pyelonephritis: A global survey of current practice and opinions across 19 countries on six continents.

Background: Despite the burden of pyelonephritis after kidney transplantation, there is no consensus on initial empirical antibiotic management.

Methods: We surveyed clinicians throughout the world on their practice and opinions about the initial empirical therapy of post-transplant pyelonephritis, using clinical vignettes. A panel of experts from 19 countries on six continents designed this survey, and invited 2145 clinicians to participate.

[Improving pre-emptive access to the kidney transplant waiting list between 2017 and 2021: assessment of a regional program in Aquitaine].

Introduction: Pre-emptive access to the kidney transplant (KT) waiting list remains limited in France, with only 3.9% of patients on pre-emptive KT and 5.6% of patients registered at the time of initiation of dialysis.

Performance of Mucorales spp. qPCR in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid for the diagnosis of pulmonary mucormycosis.

To estimate the diagnostic performance of Mucorales polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in routine practice. This was a single-center retrospective study including all consecutive patients >18 years who underwent Mucorales PCR assay in BALF between January 2021 and May 2022. Index testing was prospectively performed using the MycoGENIE Aspergillus spp.

[Improving pre-emptive access to the kidney transplant waiting list between 2017 and 2021: Assessment of a regional program in Aquitaine].

Introduction: Pre-emptive access to the kidney transplant (KT) waiting list remains limited in France, with only 3.9% of patients on pre-emptive KT and 5.6% of patients registered at the time of initiation of dialysis.

High Risk of Acute Kidney Failure in Kidney Transplant Recipients Early after Bariatric Surgery.

Bariatric surgery is routinely proposed to patients suffering from obesity including kidney transplant recipients. In this specific population, bariatric surgery has a positive impact in long-term outcomes in terms of patient and graft survival. We report here the cases of 4 patients with five post-kidney transplantation bariatric surgeries who experimented acute renal injury early after surgery.

Cytomegalovirus Cell-Mediated Immunity: Ready for Routine Use?

Utilizing assays that assess specific T-cell-mediated immunity against cytomegalovirus (CMV) holds the potential to enhance personalized strategies aimed at preventing and treating CMV in organ transplantation. This includes improved risk stratification during transplantation compared to relying solely on CMV serostatus, as well as determining the optimal duration of antiviral prophylaxis, deciding on antiviral therapy when asymptomatic replication occurs, and estimating the risk of recurrence. In this review, we initially provide an overlook of the current concepts into the immune control of CMV after transplantation.

Trends in epidemiology and risk factors of opportunistic infections in kidney transplant recipients between 2004 and 2017.

Background: While opportunistic infections are a frequent and challenging problem in kidney transplant recipients, their long-term epidemiology remains hardly known.

Methods: Opportunistic infections were recorded in 1144 recipients transplanted in our center between 2004 and 2015. Incidence rates and baseline risk factors were determined using joint frailty models.

Performance of real-time PCR in suspected haemodialysis catheter-related bloodstream infection: a proof-of-concept study.

Background: Catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBIs) remain a major cause of mortality in haemodialysis (HD) patients with central venous catheters (CVCs), especially because of the non-specific symptomatology and the delay in microbiological diagnosis with possible use of non-optimal empiric antibiotics. Moreover, empiric broad-spectrum antibiotics increase antibiotic resistance development. This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic performance of real-time polymerase chain reaction (rt-PCR) in suspected HD CRBIs compared with blood cultures.

Magnetic Resonance Elastography as Surrogate Marker of Interstitial Fibrosis in Kidney Transplantation: A Prospective Study.

Background: Fibrosis progression is a major prognosis factor in kidney transplantation. Its assessment requires an allograft biopsy, which remains an invasive procedure at risk of complications.

Methods: We assessed renal stiffness by magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) as a surrogate marker of fibrosis in a prospective cohort of kidney transplant recipients compared with the histologic gold standard.

A UPLC-MS/MS Method for Plasma Biological Monitoring of Nirmatrelvir and Ritonavir in the Context of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Application to a Case.

Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir association has been authorized for conditional use in the treatment of COVID-19, especially in solid-organ transplant recipients who did not respond to vaccine and are still at high risk of severe disease. This combination remains at risk of drug interactions with immunosuppressants, so monitoring drug levels seems necessary. After a simple protein precipitation of plasma sample, analytes were analyzed using an ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography system coupled with tandem mass spectrometry in a positive ionization mode.

Cryptococcal Meningitis in Kidney Transplant Recipients: A Two-Decade Cohort Study in France.

Cryptococcosis is the third most common cause of invasive fungal infection in solid organ transplant recipients and cryptococcal meningitis (CM) its main clinical presentation. CM outcomes, as well as its clinical features and radiological characteristics, have not yet been considered on a large scale in the context of kidney transplantation (KT). We performed a nationwide retrospective study of adult patients diagnosed with cryptococcosis after KT between 2002 and 2020 across 30 clinical centers in France.

Serious and Atypical Presentations of Infection in Kidney Transplant Recipients.

This article describes 5 cases of bartonellosis with fever and atypical clinical presentations in kidney transplant recipients: thrombotic microangiopathies, recurrent hemophagocytosis, and immune reconstitution syndrome after treatment. The diagnosis, the pathological lesions, and treatments are described. Bartonellosis must be researched in solid organ transplant recipients with fever of undetermined origin.

[Diagnosis and treatment of catheter-related bloodstream infection in hemodialysis: 10 years later].

Patients in hemodialysis on central venous catheter as vascular access are at risk of infections. Catheter-related bloodstream infection is one of the most serious catheter-complications in hemodialysis patients. Its clinical and microbiological diagnosis is challenging.

Incidence of cytomegalovirus infection in seropositive kidney transplant recipients treated with everolimus: A randomized, open-label, multicenter phase 4 trial.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) persists as the most frequent opportunistic infection among solid organ transplant recipients. This multicenter trial aimed to test whether treatment with everolimus (EVR) could decrease the incidence of CMV DNAemia and disease. We randomized 186 CMV seropositive kidney transplant recipients in a 1:1 ratio to receive EVR or mycophenolic acid (MPA) in association with basiliximab, cyclosporin, and steroids and 87 in each group were analyzed.

mTOR Inhibitors Prevent CMV Infection through the Restoration of Functional αβ and γδ T cells in Kidney Transplantation.

Background: The reported association of mTOR-inhibitor (mTORi) treatment with a lower incidence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in kidney transplant recipients (KTR) who are CMV seropositive (R+) remains unexplained.

Methods: The incidence of CMV infection and T-cell profile was compared between KTRs treated with mTORis and mycophenolic acid (MPA), and mTORi effects on T-cell phenotype and functions were analyzed.

Results: In KTRs who were R+ and treated with MPA, both and T cells displayed a more dysfunctional phenotype (PD-1+, CD85j+) at day 0 of transplantation in the 16 KTRs with severe CMV infection, as compared with the 17 KTRs without or with spontaneously resolving CMV infection.

Immunological exhaustion: How to make a disparate concept operational?

In this essay, we show that 3 distinct approaches to immunological exhaustion coexist and that they only partially overlap, generating potential misunderstandings. Exploring cases ranging from viral infections to cancer, we propose that it is crucial, for experimental and therapeutic purposes, to clarify these approaches and their interconnections so as to make the concept of exhaustion genuinely operational.

Unconventional T cells and kidney disease.

Unconventional T cells are a diverse and underappreciated group of relatively rare lymphocytes that are distinct from conventional CD4 and CD8 T cells, and that mainly recognize antigens in the absence of classical restriction through the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). These non-MHC-restricted T cells include mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells, natural killer T (NKT) cells, γδ T cells and other, often poorly defined, subsets. Depending on the physiological context, unconventional T cells may assume either protective or pathogenic roles in a range of inflammatory and autoimmune responses in the kidney.

Epidemiological and clinical study of microsporidiosis in French kidney transplant recipients from 2005 to 2019: TRANS-SPORE registry.

Introduction: Microsporidiosis is an emerging opportunistic infection in renal transplantation (RT) recipients. We aimed to describe its clinical presentation and treatment.

Materials And Methods: We collected microsporidiosis cases identified in RT recipients between 2005 and 2019 in six French centers from the Crystal, Divat and Astre prospective databases.

Pulmonary tuberculosis and management of contact patients in a Department of Nephrology and Kidney Transplantation.

Objectives: To describe the investigation, follow-up, management, and outcomes in a cohort of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and kidney transplant recipients (KTR) exposed to a case of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB).

Methods: Contacts were investigated following a concentric circles approach and followed-up according to their level of priority. In those with evidence of latent TB infection, treatment decision was based on the level of exposure, individual vulnerability, as well as the results of an interferon-gamma release assay.