Emerging drugs for the treatment of transplant rejection

Abstract

Introduction: Kidney allograft rejection is an important cause of early and late allograft failure. The importance of antibody-mediated rejection especially in the context of late allograft failure has only recently been acknowledged.

Areas covered: This review summarizes new developments in the treatment of cellular and antibody-mediated kidney allograft rejection. Drugs presented here include monoclonal antibodies and novel innovative approaches such as proteasome and complement inhibition. In addition, other options for the treatment of allograft rejection such as the administration of intravenous immune globulins or the use of plasmapheresis and immunoadsorption are discussed.

Expert opinion: Especially the treatment of chronic antibody-mediated rejection represents a challenge and new therapeutic options are needed.

Keywords:

• acute rejection
• alloantibodies
• kidney transplantation
• monoclonal antibodies