Innovative approaches of adoptive immune cell therapy in paediatric recipients of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Adoptive immune cell therapy represents one of the most promising fields of investigation in allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Preliminary studies indicate that adoptive immune cell therapy can be used to restore the immunocompetence of allo-HSCT recipients towards widespread pathogens in the early post-transplant period. These strategies can be of fundamental importance in patients given a T-cell-depleted allograft, a type of transplant that has been performed increasingly over the last few years. A few seminal studies have recently documented that prevention/treatment of Epstein–Barr-virus-related lymphoproliferative disorders, human cytomegalovirus disease and invasive aspergillosis can be obtained through infusion of pathogen-specific T-cell lines or clones. Several efforts are also being directed towards the identification of strategies capable of selecting and/or strengthening specific graft-vs-leukaemia responses. In this regard, strategies of ex-vivo generation and expansion of clones or cell lines, specifically or preferentially leukaemia reactive, have been developed.