Heart Transplant RejectionNano-HeartNCT06436027
Molecular Diagnosis of Heart Allograft Rejection Using Intra-Graft Targeted Gene Expression Profiling.
An observational study of Heart Transplant Rejection, run by Paris Translational Research Center for Organ Transplantation at 3 sites in 3 countries.
Trial summary
The goal of this observational study is to develop and validate a molecular heart rejection diagnostic system based on targeted transcriptome as a novel monitoring companion tool for heart allograft precision diagnostics applicable to formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded endomyocardial biopsies. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and older
- Conditions the study is for
- Heart Transplant Rejection
- What is being tested?
- Nano-Heart tool: Intra-Graft Targeted Gene Expression Profiling
- How many people
- 496 participants
- Where
- 3 sitesin 3 countries
- Study dates
- 10 Nov 2021to 15 Dec 2023
- Phase
- Observational
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- No healthy volunteers
- Adult, Older adult
Study population: We designed an international multicenter study, building a deep phenotyped cohort of heart transplant recipients recruited at 4 referral centers (Pitié-Salpêtrière and Georges Pompidou hospitals in Paris, Center Gallucci of the University General Hospital of Padova and the Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, USA).
Who may be able to join
- heart transplant recipients ≥ 18 years old
- at least one endomyocardial biopsy performed as part of routine clinical care
- biopsy performed at least ≥ 1 month post transplant and less that 10-year post-transplant
- written informed consent
Who cannot join
- age below 18 years old
Trial locations and contacts
3 sites in 3 countries.
3 sites in 3 countries
United States1 site
Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Los Angeles, California, 90048
France1 site
Paris Translational Research Center for Organ Transplantation
Paris
About this study
The goal of this observational study is to develop and validate a molecular heart rejection diagnostic system based on targeted transcriptome as a novel monitoring companion tool for heart allograft precision diagnostics applicable to formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded endomyocardial biopsies.
The primary outcome will be the biopsy-proven rejection, that will be predicted with molecular classifiers (cellular and antibody-mediated rejection scores).
Read the detailed description
Heart transplantation (HTx) remains the most valuable therapeutic option for patients with end-stage heart failure refractory to optimal medical therapy. Despite major improvements in immunosuppression and transplant care, acute and chronic rejection-induced allograft injuries remain one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity after heart transplantation, thus limiting recipients' life expectancy. An improvement in the overall management of rejection remains an unmet medical need. As a first step, a precise diagnosis of rejection is crucial to guide patient care and optimize management.
Nowadays, the diagnosis of cardiac rejection relies exclusively on the pathological assessment of endomyocardial biopsies (EMBs) by identifying and grading cellular infiltrates and myocardial damage. While important advances have been made in the standardization of the rejection diagnosis, pathology remains an imperfect gold-standard, particularly due to the inter-observer variability, sample bias and the use of qualitative or semi-quantitative scales that oversimplify complex phenotypes. Additionally, disease severity, degree of myocardial injury and progression stage are crucial pieces of information poorly captured by the current working formulations. All these limits represent major barriers to achieve a precise and reliable diagnosis of rejection.
In this context, gene expression profiling analysis of fresh myocardial samples retrieved during an extra-core biopsy and using a whole transcriptome approach arose as a potential objective companion tool of pathology to refine the diagnosis of rejection. However, important drawbacks have limited the routine clinical applicability of whole-transcriptome based molecular diagnosis including extra-core sampling bias, low reproducibility, technical and analytical heaviness, with costs and sample turn-around that is not compatible with a clinical setting.
Recent technologies may overcome this limitation by allowing analysis of the same tissue used for histology assessment. Targeted molecular profiling applicable to formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) endomyocardial biopsies may allow the implementation of molecular diagnosis into the clinical routine. Recently, we have shown that the Banff Human Organ Transplant Panel (B-HOT) panel, a consortium-approved consensual targeted panel including 770 genes, developed by the Banff Molecular Diagnostics Working Group, accurately captured key molecular patterns of antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) in heart allograft biopsies and may serve as a proxy to whole transcriptome-based analysis.
The aim of the present study is therefore to identify gene expression signatures for AMR and acute cellular rejection in heart transplantation and to develop and validate a molecular heart rejection diagnostic system based on targeted transcriptome as a novel monitoring companion tool for heart allograft precision diagnostics applicable to FFPE-EMB.
- Conditions
- Heart Transplant Rejection
- Being tested
- Nano-Heart tool: Intra-Graft Targeted Gene Expression Profiling
- Keywords
- molecular biology, allograft rejection, endomyocardial biopsy, pathology, precision diagnosis, heart transplantation
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Nano-Heart tool: Intra-Graft Targeted Gene Expression ProfilingDiagnostic test
Targeted molecular profiling will be performed on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) endomyocardial biopsies using the NanoString nCounter technology. A consortium-approved consensual targeted panel including 770 genes, developed by the Banff Molecular Diagnostics Working Group (MDWG) will be used.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Development cohort | Random selection of 80% of the overall cohort. Receives: Diagnostic Test: Nano-Heart tool: Intra-Graft Targeted Gene Expression Profiling | |
| Validation cohort | Random selection of 20% of the overall cohort. Receives: Diagnostic Test: Nano-Heart tool: Intra-Graft Targeted Gene Expression Profiling |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Biopsy-proven rejection: acute cellular-rejection and antibody-mediated rejection.
Prediction performances of the molecular classifiers (cellular and antibody-mediated rejection scores) to predict biopsy-proven rejection: diagnostic accuracy, Receiver Operating Characteristic - area under the curve, Precision Recall - area under the curve, Brier score, F1 score.
Measured: 1 month
Secondary outcomes (1)
Discrepancies between molecular and pathology diagnosis of rejection.
Confusion matrix, detailed review of the cases.
Measured: 1-month
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted30 May 2024
- Study start10 Nov 2021
- Primary completion15 Dec 2023
- Study completion15 Dec 2023
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Publications (7)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for Heart Transplant RejectionStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Observational
- Observational model
- Cohort
- Time perspective
- Retrospective
- Enrolment
- 496 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Paris Translational Research Center for Organ Transplantation
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, University of Padova
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
- Investigators
- Alexandre Loupy, MD, PhD, Study director, Paris Translational Research Center for Organ TransplantationGuillaume Coutance, MD, PhD, Principal investigator, Paris Translational Research Center for Organ Transplantation
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06436027
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- NANOHEART
- Acronym
- Nano-Heart
- Status last verified
- May 2024
- First submitted
- 14 May 2024
- Last updated
- 30 May 2024
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Publications
Berry GJ, Burke MM, Andersen C, Bruneval P, Fedrigo M, Fishbein MC, Goddard M, Hammond EH, Leone O, Marboe C, Miller D, Neil D, Rassl D, Revelo MP, Rice A, Rene Rodriguez E, Stewart S, Tan CD, Winters GL, West L, Mehra MR, Angelini A. The 2013 International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation Working Formulation for the standardization of nomenclature in the pathologic diagnosis of antibody-mediated rejection in heart transplantation. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2013 Dec;32(12):1147-62. doi: 10.1016/j.healun.2013.08.011.
PubMed 24263017Halloran PF, Venner JM, Madill-Thomsen KS, Einecke G, Parkes MD, Hidalgo LG, Famulski KS. Review: The transcripts associated with organ allograft rejection. Am J Transplant. 2018 Apr;18(4):785-795. doi: 10.1111/ajt.14600. Epub 2017 Dec 23.
PubMed 29178397Halloran PF, Potena L, Van Huyen JD, Bruneval P, Leone O, Kim DH, Jouven X, Reeve J, Loupy A. Building a tissue-based molecular diagnostic system in heart transplant rejection: The heart Molecular Microscope Diagnostic (MMDx) System. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2017 Nov;36(11):1192-1200. doi: 10.1016/j.healun.2017.05.029. Epub 2017 May 29.
PubMed 28662985Mengel M, Loupy A, Haas M, Roufosse C, Naesens M, Akalin E, Clahsen-van Groningen MC, Dagobert J, Demetris AJ, Duong van Huyen JP, Gueguen J, Issa F, Robin B, Rosales I, Von der Thusen JH, Sanchez-Fueyo A, Smith RN, Wood K, Adam B, Colvin RB. Banff 2019 Meeting Report: Molecular diagnostics in solid organ transplantation-Consensus for the Banff Human Organ Transplant (B-HOT) gene panel and open source multicenter validation. Am J Transplant. 2020 Sep;20(9):2305-2317. doi: 10.1111/ajt.16059. Epub 2020 Jun 27.
PubMed 32428337Giarraputo A, Coutance G, Aubert O, Fedrigo M, Mezine F, Zielinski D, Mengel M, Bruneval P, Duong van Huyen JP, Angelini A, Loupy A. Banff Human Organ Transplant Consensus Gene Panel for the Detection of Antibody Mediated Rejection in Heart Allograft Biopsies. Transpl Int. 2023 Sep 4;36:11710. doi: 10.3389/ti.2023.11710. eCollection 2023.
PubMed 37745639Coutance G, Zouhry I, Racape M, Drieux F, Viailly PJ, Rouvier P, Francois A, Chenard MP, Toquet C, Rabant M, Berry GJ, Angelini A, Bruneval P, Duong Van Huyen JP. Correlation Between Microvascular Inflammation in Endomyocardial Biopsies and Rejection Transcripts, Donor-specific Antibodies, and Graft Dysfunction in Antibody-mediated Rejection. Transplantation. 2022 Jul 1;106(7):1455-1464. doi: 10.1097/TP.0000000000004008. Epub 2021 Dec 21.
PubMed 34954735Duong Van Huyen JP, Fedrigo M, Fishbein GA, Leone O, Neil D, Marboe C, Peyster E, von der Thusen J, Loupy A, Mengel M, Revelo MP, Adam B, Bruneval P, Angelini A, Miller DV, Berry GJ. The XVth Banff Conference on Allograft Pathology the Banff Workshop Heart Report: Improving the diagnostic yield from endomyocardial biopsies and Quilty effect revisited. Am J Transplant. 2020 Dec;20(12):3308-3318. doi: 10.1111/ajt.16083. Epub 2020 Jun 28.
PubMed 32476272
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 30 May 2024. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Molecular Diagnosis of Heart Allograft Rejection Using Intra-Graft Targeted Gene Expression Profiling.
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06436027
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- Nano-Heart / NANOHEART
- Conditions
- Heart Transplant Rejection
- Keywords
- molecular biology, allograft rejection, endomyocardial biopsy, pathology, precision diagnosis, heart transplantation
- Study type
- Observational
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 496 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- Paris Translational Research Center for Organ TransplantationUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, University of Padova
- Study start
- 10 Nov 2021 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 15 Dec 2023 (actual)
- Study completion
- 15 Dec 2023 (actual)
- First posted
- 30 May 2024 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
The goal of this observational study is to develop and validate a molecular heart rejection diagnostic system based on targeted transcriptome as a novel monitoring companion tool for heart allograft precision diagnostics applicable to formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded endomyocardial biopsies.
The primary outcome will be the biopsy-proven rejection, that will be predicted with molecular classifiers (cellular and antibody-mediated rejection scores).
Detailed description
Heart transplantation (HTx) remains the most valuable therapeutic option for patients with end-stage heart failure refractory to optimal medical therapy. Despite major improvements in immunosuppression and transplant care, acute and chronic rejection-induced allograft injuries remain one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity after heart transplantation, thus limiting recipients' life expectancy. An improvement in the overall management of rejection remains an unmet medical need. As a first step, a precise diagnosis of rejection is crucial to guide patient care and optimize management.
Nowadays, the diagnosis of cardiac rejection relies exclusively on the pathological assessment of endomyocardial biopsies (EMBs) by identifying and grading cellular infiltrates and myocardial damage. While important advances have been made in the standardization of the rejection diagnosis, pathology remains an imperfect gold-standard, particularly due to the inter-observer variability, sample bias and the use of qualitative or semi-quantitative scales that oversimplify complex phenotypes. Additionally, disease severity, degree of myocardial injury and progression stage are crucial pieces of information poorly captured by the current working formulations. All these limits represent major barriers to achieve a precise and reliable diagnosis of rejection.
In this context, gene expression profiling analysis of fresh myocardial samples retrieved during an extra-core biopsy and using a whole transcriptome approach arose as a potential objective companion tool of pathology to refine the diagnosis of rejection. However, important drawbacks have limited the routine clinical applicability of whole-transcriptome based molecular diagnosis including extra-core sampling bias, low reproducibility, technical and analytical heaviness, with costs and sample turn-around that is not compatible with a clinical setting.
Recent technologies may overcome this limitation by allowing analysis of the same tissue used for histology assessment. Targeted molecular profiling applicable to formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) endomyocardial biopsies may allow the implementation of molecular diagnosis into the clinical routine. Recently, we have shown that the Banff Human Organ Transplant Panel (B-HOT) panel, a consortium-approved consensual targeted panel including 770 genes, developed by the Banff Molecular Diagnostics Working Group, accurately captured key molecular patterns of antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) in heart allograft biopsies and may serve as a proxy to whole transcriptome-based analysis.
The aim of the present study is therefore to identify gene expression signatures for AMR and acute cellular rejection in heart transplantation and to develop and validate a molecular heart rejection diagnostic system based on targeted transcriptome as a novel monitoring companion tool for heart allograft precision diagnostics applicable to FFPE-EMB.
Study design
- Observational model
- Cohort
- Time perspective
- Retrospective
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Development cohort | – | Diagnostic Test: Nano-Heart tool: Intra-Graft Targeted Gene Expression ProfilingRandom selection of 80% of the overall cohort. |
| Validation cohort | – | Diagnostic Test: Nano-Heart tool: Intra-Graft Targeted Gene Expression ProfilingRandom selection of 20% of the overall cohort. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
- Study population
- We designed an international multicenter study, building a deep phenotyped cohort of heart transplant recipients recruited at 4 referral centers (Pitié-Salpêtrière and Georges Pompidou hospitals in Paris, Center Gallucci of the University General Hospital of Padova and the Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, USA).
Key inclusion criteria (4 listed)
- heart transplant recipients ≥ 18 years old
- at least one endomyocardial biopsy performed as part of routine clinical care
- biopsy performed at least ≥ 1 month post transplant and less that 10-year post-transplant
- written informed consent
Key exclusion criteria (1 listed)
- age below 18 years old
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Nano-Heart tool: Intra-Graft Targeted Gene Expression ProfilingTargeted molecular profiling will be performed on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) endomyocardial biopsies using the NanoString nCounter technology. A consortium-approved consensual targeted panel including 770 genes, developed by the Banff Molecular Diagnostics Working Group (MDWG) will be used. | Diagnostic test | Development cohort, Validation cohort |
Primary outcome
Biopsy-proven rejection: acute cellular-rejection and antibody-mediated rejection.
Time frame: 1 month
Prediction performances of the molecular classifiers (cellular and antibody-mediated rejection scores) to predict biopsy-proven rejection: diagnostic accuracy, Receiver Operating Characteristic - area under the curve, Precision Recall - area under the curve, Brier score, F1 score.
1 secondary outcome
Discrepancies between molecular and pathology diagnosis of rejection.
Time frame: 1-month
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 30 May 2024.
- Background: PubMed 24263017Berry GJ, Burke MM, Andersen C, Bruneval P, Fedrigo M, Fishbein MC, Goddard M, Hammond EH, Leone O, Marboe C, Miller D, Neil D, Rassl D, Revelo MP, Rice A, Rene Rodriguez E, Stewart S, Tan CD, Winters GL, West L, Mehra MR, Angelini A. The 2013 International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation Working Formulation for the standardization of nomenclature in the pathologic diagnosis of antibody-mediated rejection in heart transplantation. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2013 Dec;32(12):1147-62. doi: 10.1016/j.healun.2013.08.011.
- Background: PubMed 29178397Halloran PF, Venner JM, Madill-Thomsen KS, Einecke G, Parkes MD, Hidalgo LG, Famulski KS. Review: The transcripts associated with organ allograft rejection. Am J Transplant. 2018 Apr;18(4):785-795. doi: 10.1111/ajt.14600. Epub 2017 Dec 23.
- Background: PubMed 28662985Halloran PF, Potena L, Van Huyen JD, Bruneval P, Leone O, Kim DH, Jouven X, Reeve J, Loupy A. Building a tissue-based molecular diagnostic system in heart transplant rejection: The heart Molecular Microscope Diagnostic (MMDx) System. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2017 Nov;36(11):1192-1200. doi: 10.1016/j.healun.2017.05.029. Epub 2017 May 29.
- Background: PubMed 32428337Mengel M, Loupy A, Haas M, Roufosse C, Naesens M, Akalin E, Clahsen-van Groningen MC, Dagobert J, Demetris AJ, Duong van Huyen JP, Gueguen J, Issa F, Robin B, Rosales I, Von der Thusen JH, Sanchez-Fueyo A, Smith RN, Wood K, Adam B, Colvin RB. Banff 2019 Meeting Report: Molecular diagnostics in solid organ transplantation-Consensus for the Banff Human Organ Transplant (B-HOT) gene panel and open source multicenter validation. Am J Transplant. 2020 Sep;20(9):2305-2317. doi: 10.1111/ajt.16059. Epub 2020 Jun 27.
- Background: PubMed 37745639Giarraputo A, Coutance G, Aubert O, Fedrigo M, Mezine F, Zielinski D, Mengel M, Bruneval P, Duong van Huyen JP, Angelini A, Loupy A. Banff Human Organ Transplant Consensus Gene Panel for the Detection of Antibody Mediated Rejection in Heart Allograft Biopsies. Transpl Int. 2023 Sep 4;36:11710. doi: 10.3389/ti.2023.11710. eCollection 2023.
- Background: PubMed 34954735Coutance G, Zouhry I, Racape M, Drieux F, Viailly PJ, Rouvier P, Francois A, Chenard MP, Toquet C, Rabant M, Berry GJ, Angelini A, Bruneval P, Duong Van Huyen JP. Correlation Between Microvascular Inflammation in Endomyocardial Biopsies and Rejection Transcripts, Donor-specific Antibodies, and Graft Dysfunction in Antibody-mediated Rejection. Transplantation. 2022 Jul 1;106(7):1455-1464. doi: 10.1097/TP.0000000000004008. Epub 2021 Dec 21.
- Background: PubMed 32476272Duong Van Huyen JP, Fedrigo M, Fishbein GA, Leone O, Neil D, Marboe C, Peyster E, von der Thusen J, Loupy A, Mengel M, Revelo MP, Adam B, Bruneval P, Angelini A, Miller DV, Berry GJ. The XVth Banff Conference on Allograft Pathology the Banff Workshop Heart Report: Improving the diagnostic yield from endomyocardial biopsies and Quilty effect revisited. Am J Transplant. 2020 Dec;20(12):3308-3318. doi: 10.1111/ajt.16083. Epub 2020 Jun 28.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Alexandre Loupy, MD, PhD study director
Paris Translational Research Center for Organ Transplantation
Guillaume Coutance, MD, PhD principal investigator
Paris Translational Research Center for Organ Transplantation
3 sites in 3 countries: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
An observational study of Heart Transplant Rejection, run by Paris Translational Research Center for Organ Transplantation at 3 sites in 3 countries.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 4 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 30 May 2024. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 3 sites in United States, France, Italy. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Biopsy-proven rejection: acute cellular-rejection and antibody-mediated rejection. (time frame: 1 month). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT06436027, which also lists 7 linked publications.
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 30 May 2024; AzTrials last refreshed its copy on 7 Nov 2026.