HHV-6 is a viral infection that is really new as compared to other viral infections. We know that in the context of the new GvHD prophylaxis with post-transplant cyclophosphamide, the risk of viral infection is increased. This is true for CMV but also for other kinds of infections like HHV-6. So in this context, it is important to know if the patient is at risk to have this kind of reactivation...
HHV-6 is a viral infection that is really new as compared to other viral infections. We know that in the context of the new GvHD prophylaxis with post-transplant cyclophosphamide, the risk of viral infection is increased. This is true for CMV but also for other kinds of infections like HHV-6. So in this context, it is important to know if the patient is at risk to have this kind of reactivation.
As compared to other viral infections, it is really more difficult also to identify if the infection is clinically relevant or not for two factors. One is the possibility of this virus to be integrated in the genome of the patient, this is what we call the chromosomal integration of the virus. This is not always a true viral infection, but it can be that the virus is still present in the genome with some copies that are at a level in the blood of the patient, but without giving signs of the disease. There are other possibilities in which this kind of situation is also able to determine the disease. So it is not easy to determine if this is a real infection or not.
And the other issue is that there are some cases in which although you have a high viral titer in the peripheral blood and this is a reactivation, and this is a true reactivation, there is the possibility for the immune system of the patient to control also in an earlier time point of the transplant the viral infection without the need of antiviral therapy.
So having this kind of a unmet clinical need in this context, in my presentation I will try to give more insight on a new test that is an HHV-6 specific immunomonitoring test trying to detect with the specific immunity, if the patient is at risk to develop or not a clinically relevant infection due to the virus or not. And this can be of help doing more studies with larger numbers and probably in multicenter level. This will help us in the real management of these patient that nowadays is really something that is controversial.
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