The effect of anti-thymocyte globulin and everolimus on the kinetics of cytomegalovirus viral load in seropositive kidney transplant recipients without prophylaxis.

BACKGROUND: The use of mTOR inhibitors is associated with lower incidence of CMV infections but its effect on viral load has not been investigated. AIMS, MATERIALS AND METHODS: This post-hoc analysis included data from 273 CMV seropositive kidney transplant recipients randomized to receive anti-thymocyte globulin and everolimus (rAGT/TAC/EVR, n = 81), basiliximab and everolimus (BAS/TAC/EVR, n = 97) or basiliximab and mycophenolate (BAS/TAC/MPS, n = 95). All patients received tacrolimus (TAC) and corticosteroids. Preemptive CMV therapy based on weekly pp65 antigenemia test was used during the first 6 months. Blinded weekly CMV DNAemia was compared among the groups. RESULTS: The proportion of patients with undetectable CMV DNAemia (23.4% vs 56.7% vs 22.1%, P < .001) was higher in the BAS/TAC/EVR. The median number of study visits with positive CMV DNAemia (2.0 vs 0.0 vs 4.6, rATG/EVR vs BAS/MPS, P = .354; BAS/EVR vs BAS/MPS, P < .0001; rATG/EVR vs BAS/EVR, P < .001) were lower in the BAS/TAC/EVR. The proportion of patients with positive CMV DNAemia who were not treat for CMV infection/disease based on pp65 antigenemia was higher in rATG/TAC/EVR group (74.1% vs 36.1% vs 44.2%, P < .001) but mean CMV DNAemia was comparable to BAS/TAC/EVR and lower than BAS/TAC/MPS (8536 ± 15 899 vs 7975 ± 17 935 vs 16 965 ± 37 694 copies/mL, P < .05), respectively. The proportion of patients with CMV DNAemia below 5000 copies/mL was higher in patients receiving EVR (74.1% vs 83.5% vs 50.0%, P = .000), respectively. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: These data suggest that mTOR inhibitors reduce the incidence of CMV infection by limiting CMV viral replication.

Epidemiology of invasive fungal infections in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome at a reference hospital for infectious diseases in Brazil.

Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) represent one of the main causes of morbimortality in immunocompromised patients. Pneumocystosis, cryptococcosis and histoplasmosis are the most frequently occurring IFIs in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Fungi, such as Candida spp. and Aspergillus spp., may cause severe diseases during the course of an HIV infection. Following the introduction of highly active anti-retroviral therapy, there has been a marked reduction of opportunistic fungal infections, which today is 20-25 % of the number of infections observed in the mid-1990s. This study is an observational and retrospective study aimed at the characterising IFI incidence and describing the epidemiology, clinical diagnostic and therapeutic features and denouement in HIV/AIDS patients. In HIV/AIDS patients, the IFI incidence is 54.3/1,000 hospitalisation/year, with a lethality of 37.7 %. Cryptococcosis represents the main opportunistic IFI in the population, followed by histoplasmosis. Nosocomial pathogenic yeast infections are caused principally by Candida spp., with a higher candidemia incidence at our institution compared to other Brazilian centres.