Preemptive CD8 T-cell immunotherapy of acute cytomegalovirus infection prevents lethal disease, limits the burden of latent viral genomes, and reduces the risk of virus recurrence.

In the immunocompetent host, primary cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is resolved by the immune response without causing overt disease. The viral genome, however, is not cleared but is maintained in a latent state that entails a risk of virus recurrence and consequent organ disease. By using murine CMV as a model, we have shown previously that multiple organs harbor latent CMV and that reactivation occurs with an incidence that is determined by the viral DNA load in the respective organ (M. J. Reddehase, M. Balthesen, M. Rapp, S. Jonjic, I. Pavic, and U. H. Koszinowski. J. Exp. Med. 179:185-193, 1994). This predicts that a therapeutic intervention capable of limiting the load of latent viral genome should also reduce the risk of virus recurrence. Here we demonstrate the benefits and the limits of a preemptive CD8 T-cell immunotherapy of CMV infection in the immunocompromised bone marrow transplantation recipient. Antiviral CD8 T cells prevented CMV disease and accelerated the resolution of productive infection. The therapy also resulted in a lower load of latent CMV DNA in organs and consequently reduced the incidence of recurrence. The data thus provide a further supporting argument for clinical trials of preemptive cytoimmunotherapy of human CMV disease with CD8 T cells. However, CD8 T cells failed to clear the viral DNA. The therapy-susceptible portion of the DNA load differed between organs and was highest in the lungs. The existence of an invariant, therapy-resistant load suggests a role for immune system evasion mechanisms in the establishment of CMV latency.