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Transplant Procedure Creates 'Hybrid' Immune System to Combat Rejection
Posted 7 Mar 2012 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, March 7 – Researchers report that they were able to create a kind of hybrid immune system in patients who received kidney transplants, a process that appeared to allow the recipients' bodies to accept a foreign organ instead of trying to reject it. There are caveats. The research is preliminary and only involved a tiny number of patients. Also, the required procedure is expensive and its long-term effects aren't known. But if it works, the process – which involves transferring bone marrow cells from the kidney donor to the patient – could allow organ transplant recipients to avoid a lifetime of taking dozens of pills a day. "It's a huge step forward," said Dr. Suzanne Ildstad, director of the University of Louisville's Institute for Cellular Therapeutics, and co-author of the study published in the March 7 issue of Science Translational Medicine. The immune system's job is ... Read more
Related support groups: Organ Transplant -- Rejection Prophylaxis, Organ Transplant, Organ Transplant -- Rejection Reversal, Rejection Prophylaxis, Rejection Reversal
FDA Approves Nulojix for Kidney Transplant Patients
Posted 20 Jun 2011 by Drugs.com
SILVER SPRING, Md., June 15, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Nulojix (belatacept) to prevent acute rejection in adult patients who have had a kidney transplant. The drug is approved for use with other immunosuppressants (medications that suppress the immune system) – specifically basiliximab, mycophenolate mofetil, and corticosteroids. Nulojix is a type of drug called a selective T-cell costimulation blocker. The drug helps to prevent organ rejection after a kidney transplant. Without immunosuppression, the body can reject a transplanted organ because the immune system recognizes the new organ as foreign (transplant rejection). By preventing rejection, Nulojix, given through 30 minute intravenous infusions, works with other immunosuppressants to keep the new kidney working. "Nulojix is a new option for kidney transplant patients," ... Read more
Related support groups: Organ Transplant -- Rejection Prophylaxis
New Test for Heart, Kidney Transplant Rejection
Posted 23 Sep 2010 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Sept. 23 – A new blood test may offer a quicker, noninvasive way to detect organ rejection in heart and kidney transplant patients before the new organs are damaged, say researchers from the Stanford School of Medicine in California. They found that levels of three easily measured proteins rise in the blood during acute rejection, in which a transplant patient's immune system attacks the new organ. This is the first study to pinpoint a rejection signal that's shared by two kinds of transplanted organs, according to the researchers. The study appears online Sept. 23 in the journal PLoS Computational Biology. Tests are now being conducted to determine if these protein signals can also be used to identify organ rejection in liver and lung transplant patients, the researchers added. "In the past, we couldn't spot rejection episodes until they harmed the organ. Our goal is to ... Read more
Related support groups: Organ Transplant -- Rejection Prophylaxis, Rejection Prophylaxis
Cancer Risk After Kidney Transplant Unaffected by Type of Drug Treatment
Posted 29 Apr 2010 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, April 29 – The type of drug treatment used to prevent organ rejection in kidney transplant patients doesn't affect cancer risk, a new study finds. Kidney transplant patients are at increased risk for cancer, likely because of patients' long-term use of immunosuppressive drugs to prevent organ rejection. In this study, Australian researchers examined the incidence of cancer in 481 kidney transplant patients. The patients had received one of three treatment regimens: azathioprine and prednisolone; cyclosporine monotherapy; or cyclesoporine monotherapy followed by a switch to azathioprine and prednisolone after three months. In the 20 years after transplant, 226 patients developed at least one cancer, including 48 percent who developed skin cancer and 27 percent who developed non-skin cancer. None of the anti-rejection treatments had a greater effect than another on cancer ... Read more
Related support groups: Organ Transplant -- Rejection Prophylaxis, Rejection Prophylaxis
Gene May Boost Risk of Kidney Transplant Failure
Posted 6 Apr 2010 by Drugs.com
TUESDAY, April 6 – Researchers have identified a gene variant in kidney donors that's associated with increased risk that the organ will stop working (graft failure) after it's transplanted into a recipient. The variation occurs in the CAV1 gene, which normally inhibits the development of fibrous connective tissue that can interfere with a transplant. In this study, British researchers analyzed DNA from hundreds of kidney donors and their recipients in England and Ireland. They found that rates of graft failure ranged anywhere from about 39 percent to 67 percent for donor genotype AA, from around 22 percent to 42 percent for donor genotype CC, and from about 22 percent to 44 percent for donor genotype AC. "Although a minority of donors displayed the AA genotype (approximately 10 percent), this gene variant nevertheless shows potential in identifying a subpopulation at higher risk of ... Read more
Related support groups: Renal Transplant, Organ Transplant -- Rejection Prophylaxis, Rejection Prophylaxis
Organ Transplant Drug Keeps Immune System in Check
Posted 3 Feb 2010 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 3 – Adding a new drug to the heavy regimen of immunosuppressant drugs given to organ transplant recipients not only prevented rejection of the new organ but also cut down on the amount of immunosuppressant drugs needed, a new study finds. Researchers hope the experimental drug will eventually preclude the need for any immunosuppressant drugs after an organ transplant. "Current drugs are quite toxic when it comes to long-term survival. There are side effects, and organs suffer because of the drugs," said Dr. Mohanram Narayanan, associate professor of internal medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in Temple and chief of clinical transplantation at Scott & White Healthcare. "This is a definite step in the right direction." "The hope is that this will translate into a new treatment to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients," added Agnes ... Read more
Related support groups: Organ Transplant -- Rejection Prophylaxis, Organ Transplant
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