Original Paper

Is Combined Pretransplantation Seropositivity of Kidney Transplant Recipients for Cytomegalovirus Antigens (pp150 and pp28) a Predictor for Protection against Infection?
S. Essa^a, A. Pacsa^a, T. Said^b, M.R.N. Nampoory^b, R. Raghupathy^a, K.V. Johny^b, W. Al-Nakib^a, M. Al-Mosawy<sup>b

a</sup>Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, and
^bHamad Al-Essa Organ Transplant Center, Ministry of Health, Kuwait

Address of Corresponding Author

Med Princ Pract 2008;17:66-70 (DOI: 10.1159/000109593)

  Key Words

• Kidney transplantation
• Cytomegalovirus infection
• Antibody responses
• Peptide antigens

  Abstract

Objective: This study was aimed at detecting antibodies to the antigens which may contribute to protection against cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection after organ transplantation. Materials and Methods: A total of 203 kidney transplant patients were enrolled in the study. Based on CMV antigenemia assay, 23 patients were antigen-positive and of the remaining 180 antigen-negative patients, 46 were selected as controls matched for age, gender and source of kidney. The 69 kidney recipients (KR) had CMV antibody due to previous infection and were followed up for a period of 6 months after transplantation for the development of active CMV infections by the antigenemia assay. Antibody responses to five CMV-related peptide antigens (pp65, gB, pp150, pp28 and pp38) were investigated by enzyme immunoassay and their presence was correlated with the results of the CMV antigenemia assay. Results: Of the five CMV-related peptide antigens, only gB antigen showed response to the antibody in 10/23 (43.5%) antigen-positive patients and 9/46 antigen-negative patients and the difference was statistically significant (p = 0.048). On the other hand, there was no significant difference in antibody responses between the antigen-positive and antigen-negative KR to the other four CMV peptide antigens (p > 0.05). However, among the antigen-positive KR there was only 1 patient who had antibodies to both pp150 and pp28 antigen, while among the antigen-negative KR, 22 of 46 (47.8%) had the antibodies (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The findings suggest that the combined presence of antibodies against the pp150 and pp28 antigens may indicate a lower risk of CMV reactivation after kidney transplantation.

Copyright © 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel

  Author Contacts

Sahar Essa
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine
Kuwait University, PO Box 24923
13110 Safat (Kuwait)
Tel. +965 498 6521, Fax +965 533 2719, E-Mail sahar@hsc.edu.kw

  Article Information

This research was supported by Kuwait University grant No. MI03/02.

Received: June 27, 2006
Revised: February 7, 2007
Number of Print Pages : 5
Number of Figures : 0, Number of Tables : 4, Number of References : 37