German scientists report positive results from a performed clinical trial in which patients, who underwent renal transplantation, were injected with a specially designed macrophages from the donor, cells created to dampen the immune response to transplanted organs, thus requiring lower amounts of traditional anti-rejection drugs, or no drugs at all.
From BBC News:
The new technique involves giving transplant patients an infusion of specialised cells known as a transplant acceptance-inducing cells (TAICs).
The TAICs are created by isolating a type of white blood cell from the donor, and modifying them chemically in the lab.
Once modified, the cells gain the ability to kill off cells in the immune system which trigger the rejection process, and to boost the action of another type of immune cell which plays a beneficial role in guarding against rejection.
The cells are then cultured alongside those from the recipient – which helps prime the immune system further – before being injected into the patient.
The technique has been tested on kidney transplant patients, some of whom were given the cells before surgery, and others after the transplant, as an additional drug therapy.
Lead researcher Dr James Hutchinson said the technique was still at a preliminary stage, but results on 17 patients were promising.
He said: “It could eventually offer patients who have had transplant surgery a much higher quality of life, free from complex drug regimes.”
In the first stage of the clinical trials 12 patients received kidneys from deceased donors, and were given TAICs in addition to traditional anti-rejection drugs.
Ten patients were gradually weaned off the cocktail of conventional drugs, and six eventually took only a low dose of one particular drug, cutting the risk of side effects substantially.
In the second stage of the trial five patients who received kidneys from live donors were given an infusion of TAICs before their surgery was carried out.
One patient was able to go eight months without any immunosuppression drugs, and a further three were successfully weaned down to the single low-dose therapy.
Study abstract in Transplant International: Transplant acceptance-inducing cells as an immune-conditioning therapy in renal transplantation
BBC News: Hope for end to rejection drugs…
Image credit: Wellcome images: Macrophage showing the nucleus in blue and the microtubules in green….
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