AUTHOR=Giarraputo Alessia , Coutance Guillaume , Aubert Olivier , Fedrigo Marny , Mezine Fariza , Zielinski Dina , Mengel Michael , Bruneval Patrick , Duong van Huyen Jean-Paul , Angelini Annalisa , Loupy Alexandre 

TITLE=Banff Human Organ Transplant Consensus Gene Panel for the Detection of Antibody Mediated Rejection in Heart Allograft Biopsies

JOURNAL=Transplant International

VOLUME=Volume 36 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontierspartnerships.org/journals/transplant-international/articles/10.3389/ti.2023.11710

DOI=10.3389/ti.2023.11710

ISSN=1432-2277

ABSTRACT=The molecular refinement of the diagnosis of heart allograft rejection based on wholetranscriptome analyses faces several hurdles that greatly limit its widespread clinical application. The targeted Banff Human Organ Transplant gene panel (B-HOT, including 770 genes of interest) has been developed to facilitate reproducible and cost-effective gene expression analysis of solid organ allografts. We aimed to determine in silico the ability of this targeted panel to capture the antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) molecular profile using wholetranscriptome data from 137 heart allograft biopsies (71 biopsies reflecting the entire landscape of histologic AMR, 66 non-AMR control biopsies including cellular rejection and nonrejection cases). Differential gene expression, pathway and network analyses demonstrated that the B-HOT panel captured biologically and clinically relevant genes (IFNG-inducible, NK cells, injury, monocytes-macrophage, B-cell-related genes), pathways (interleukin and interferon signaling, neutrophil degranulation, immunoregulatory interactions, endothelial activation) and networks reflecting the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the AMR process previously identified in whole-transcriptome analysis. Our findings support the potential clinical use of the B-HOT-gene panel as a reliable proxy to whole-transcriptome analysis for the gene expression profiling of cardiac allograft rejection.