Clonal expansion of CD8+ T cells reflects graft-versus-leukemia activity and precedes durable remission following DLI

Donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) is a standard of care for relapse of AML after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (aHSCT). Currently it is poorly understood how and when CD8+ αβ T cells exert graft-versus-leukemia (GvL) activity after DLI. Also, there is no reliable biomarker to monitor GvL activity of the infused CD8+ T cells. Therefore, we analyzed the dynamics of CD8+ αβ T cell clones in DLI-patients. In this prospective clinical study of 29 patients, we performed deep T cell receptor β (TRB) sequencing of sorted CD8+ αβ T cells to track patients' repertoire changes in response to DLI. Upon first occurrence of GvL, longitudinal analyses revealed a preferential expansion of distinct CD8+ TRB clones (n=14). This did not occur in samples of patients without signs of GvL (n=11). Importantly, early repertoire changes 15 days after DLI predicted durable remission for the 36 months study follow-up. Furthermore, absence of clonal outgrowth of the CD8+ TRB repertoire after DLI was an early biomarker that predicted relapse at a median time of 11.2 months ahead of actual diagnosis. Additionally, unbiased sample analysis regardless of the clinical outcome revealed that patients with decreasing CD8+ TRB diversity at day 15 after DLI (n=13) had a lower relapse incidence (P=0.0040) compared to patients without clonal expansion (n=6). In conclusion, CD8+ TRB analysis may provide a reliable tool for predicting the efficacy of DLI and holds the potential to identify patients at risk for progression and relapse after DLI.