Biological therapy in transplantation: an update from the 19th International Congress of the Transplantation Society

Abstract

With the recent upsurge in pharmaceutical drugs changing the ‘playing field’ of transplantation therapeutics, the role of old agents, such as polyclonal antilymphocyte globulins and anti-CD3 monoclonal antibodies, is being revisited, with suggestions of using different, lower dose regimens to spare the use of other drugs. Similar suggestions have been made for the newer recombinant anti-CD25 antibodies. Numerous experimental models and a few early clinical models are evolving to try to determine the place of a range of biological reagents with specificities for novel targets. These include the costimulatory ligand–receptor pairs, such as CD40–CD154 and CD80/CD86–CD28, CD52 and CD45. The role of these newer agents is far from clear, but some of these early studies are very promising.

• antilymphocyte globulin
• campath-1H
• CD3
• CD25
• CD45
• costimulation
• transplantation