Rituximab in immunologic glomerular diseases.

Experimental data suggest that the B-cell antigen CD20 may play a significant role in the pathogenesis of many diseases including glomerular diseases. These and other findings underpin the central concept of B-cell-depleting therapies that target CD20 antigen as treatments for lupus nephritis, idiopathic membranous nephropathy, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, cryglobulinemic glomerulonephritis, antibody mediated renal allograft rejection and recurrent glomerulonephritis in renal allograft. Use of rituximab as a B-cell depleting therapy has been associated with clinical improvement and has emerged as a possible adjunct or alternative treatment option in this field of nephrology.

Antibody immunosuppressive therapy in solid organ transplant: Part II.

The use of antibodies in transplantation dates to 1986 when muromonab CD3, a monoclonal antibody (mAb) targeting CD3, was first approved for prevention and treatment of renal allograft rejection. These agents have largely been used in a brief adjunctive manner to provide immunosuppression during the initial period after solid organ transplantation or during an episode of acute rejection. Recent advances in our understanding of transplant immunology have allowed emergence of numerous new mAbs, targeting co-stimulatory signals, cell surface receptors and novel protein constructs.

Antibody immunosuppressive therapy in solid-organ transplant: Part I.

Currently, a wide variety of both polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies are being routinely utilized to prevent and treat solid organ rejection. More commonly, these agents are also administered in order to delay introduction of calcineurin inhibitors, especially in patients with already compromised renal function. While these antibody therapies dramatically reduced the incidence of acute rejection episodes and improved both short and long-term graft survival, they are also associated with an increased incidence of opportunistic infections and neoplastic complications.

Excellent renal allograft survival in donor-specific antibody positive transplant patients-role of intravenous immunoglobulin and rabbit antithymocyte globulin.

Background: Timely transplantation of sensitized kidney recipients remains a challenge. Patients with a complement-dependent cytotoxicity negative and flow cytometry (FC) positive crossmatch carry increased risk of antibody-mediated rejection and thus graft loss. Solid phase assays are available to confirm donor specificity for antibody identified by FC crossmatch.

Larva currens in a patient scheduled for renal transplant.

We present a case of larva currens in a patient scheduled for renal transplant. Larva currens is an eruption caused by Strongyloides stercoralis, characterized most often by a pathognomonic, migratory, rapidly extending, serpiginous, urticarial eruption. Infected patients who are immunocompromised are at risk for disseminated and often fatal infection.

The long-term management of pancreas transplantation.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major health problem worldwide, which affects 18.2 million individuals (6.3% of the population) in the United States.

Pharmacotherapeutic options for the management of human polyomaviruses.

Polyomaviruses [BK virus (BKV), JC virus (JCV) and simian virus 40 (SV40)] have been known to be associated with diseases in humans for over thirty years. BKV-associated nephropathy and JCV-induced progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) were for many years rare diseases occurring only in patients with underlying severe impaired immunity. Over the past decade, the use of more potent immunosuppression (IS) in transplantation, and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic, have coincided with a significant increase in the prevalence of these viral complications.

Polyomaviruses and human diseases.

Polyomaviruses are small, nonenveloped DNA viruses, which are widespread in nature. In immunocompetent hosts, the viruses remain latent after primary infection. With few exceptions, illnesses associated with these viruses occur in times of immune compromise, especially in conditions that bring about T cell deficiency.

Randomized trial of tacrolimus + mycophenolate mofetil or azathioprine versus cyclosporine + mycophenolate mofetil after cadaveric kidney transplantation: results at three years.

Methods: Two hundred twenty-three recipients of first cadaveric kidney allografts were randomized to receive tacrolimus (TAC) + mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), TAC + azathioprine (AZA), or cyclosporine (Neoral; CsA) + MMF. All regimens contained corticosteroids, and antibody induction was used only in patients who experienced delayed graft function (DGF). Patients were followed-up for 3 years.

Hepatobiliary diseases after kidney transplantation unrelated to classic hepatitis virus.

Multiple studies during the past decades have identified chronic liver disease as an important cause of morbidity and mortality in kidney transplant recipients. It has been reported that up to 25% of patients will have some degree of abnormal liver functions during the immediate posttransplant period. In these patients, liver failure has been implicated as the cause of death in approximately 30% of the long-term survivors.

Limited dose monoclonal IL-2R antibody induction protocol after primary kidney transplantation.

This study prospectively compared immunoprophylaxis with a single intraoperative dose (2 mg/kg) of monoclonal interleukin-2 receptor (IL-2R) antibody vs. noninduction in kidney transplant recipients treated with tacrolimus (FK 506), mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and a prednisone-based immunosuppression regimen. One hundred recipients of first-kidney transplant were enrolled into the study to receive either anti-IL-2R monoclonal antibody, daclizumab (2 mg/kg intraoperatively, limited anti-IL-2R) or no induction (control).

Dialysis access failure: an indication for immediate kidney transplantation.

In the United States, presently there are more than 50,000 patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) awaiting a cadaveric kidney and each year less than a quarter receive kidney transplantation. Although the real incidence in unknown, a significant number of these patients die due to lack of dialysis access. While various medical necessities are indications for emergent transplantation of other organs, the current kidney allocation system of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) makes no room for those ESRD patients whose death is imminent due to lack of vascular access.