A genetic variant involved in the immune response that conditions the success of the transplantation of hematopoietic progenitors is identified

A study, led by the Clinical Hematology Service of the Catalan Institute of Oncology of Girona (ICO) - Biomedical Research Institute of Girona dr. Josep Trueta (IDIBGI) -Josep Carreras Research Institute (IJC), has identified a genetic variant involved in the immune response that determines the success of the transplantation of hematopoietic progenitors.

Specifically, in this work that has been published in the scientific journal ' Frontiers in Immunology ', the relevance of the varieties of the LAG3 gene, which plays an important role in regulating the immune response, has been studied. The results obtained by the Girona researchers suggest that those patients with greater expression of this gene could develop more complications in the form of infections or relapses of the disease.

The work, which is part of the activity within the activity of the Spanish Hemopoietic Transplantation Group, opens the door to identifying patients at greater risk of complications and to better understand the role of new immunotherapy targets.

How was the study conducted?

In order to carry out this study, the data of 797 patients who had received a transplant from a compatible family donor in 16 hospitals throughout the State were analysed. Through genetic analysis of the donors, it was observed that patients who received blood stem cells from donors with the genetic variant of LAG3, presented a worse survival related to a higher incidence of relapses and post-transplantation complications.

According to the first author of the study and clinical hematologist of the ICO Girona-IDIBGI, David Cruz, "this study allows us to have a better knowledge of the role that the immune response has on this type of transplantation, and theoretically opens the door to to be able to make a more accurate selection of donors, as long as these results are replicated by other researchers".

The Girona Hematology group has been working on this line of research for more than 20 years and the results obtained in this study help to understand a little better the genetic determinants involved in the success of this type of transplant.