Clinical Value of Peripheral Blood Gene Expression Profile and dd-cfDNA for Identifying Persistent Rejection.

Background: Persistent rejection is an increasingly recognized barrier to long-term kidney allograft survival. A noninvasive method to help identify patients with persistent rejection in need of biopsy would be valuable.

Methods: This was a post-hoc analysis of a multicenter observational study. Subjects that had a biopsy-proven acute rejection and had another biopsy within 9 months (270 days) and had a biopsy-paired biomarker sample were included.

Results: A total of 64 "index" rejections in 58 subjects with repeat biopsies were identified with a median time to repeat biopsy of 100 days. Persistent rejection was present in 61%; 69% of follow-up biopsies were performed in clinically stable patients. Peripheral blood gene expression profile (GEP) demonstrated 59% sensitivity, 76% specificity, PPV of 79%, and NPV of 54%. Donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA) demonstrated sensitivity of 62%, specificity of 86%, PPV of 88%, and NPV of 56%. For repeat biopsies within 90 days of rejection in clinically stable patients (63% of repeat biopsies), both GEP and dd-cfDNA had specificities and PPVs of 100%. GEP was more likely to be positive in TCMR, while dd-cfDNA was more likely to be positive in AMR.

Conclusions: Both GEP and dd-cfDNA may have utility at identifying clinically stable patients with persistent rejection in need of biopsy, however they identify different types of rejection.