Belatacept Post Depletional Repopulation to Facilitate Tolerance

Summary

Acute rejection is a common problem after a kidney transplant. Rejection can occur when the kidney recipient's immune system tries to attack (or reject) the new kidney. Rejection typically most often develops in the first few months after a transplant. This single center study will seek to determine if a new combination of anti-rejection medications, including the recently FDA approved drug called Belatacept, is better than the current standard anti-rejection drug regimen at preventing rejection. Also to be determined will be whether the new combination of drugs will allow participants to wean off their oral anti-rejection medications over time. This study will test the safety and effectiveness of a new investigational drug combination using alemtuzumab, belatacept, and sirolimus when given with or without donor bone marrow. This combination of medicines has not been tested before in humans. Alemtuzumab (Campath) is approved for use in some types of white blood cell cancers, but is considered investigational in transplant patients. Belatacept is now FDA approved and is being studied in transplant patients. Sirolimus (Rapamune) is approved for use in transplant patients, but its use with belatacept and alemtuzumab is investigational. In the initial 20 subjects enrolled in the study, half tested whether an infusion of bone marrow from the kidney donor would improve the effect of these drugs. This bone marrow infusion was also considered investigational. Enrollment of 20 additional subjects began in January, 2013. The donor bone marrow infusion has been eliminated. Enrollment was open to primary living and deceased donor kidney recipients. Enrollment was closed as of 8/12/2014.

Timeline

Start

2007-12

Primary completion

2017-07-01

Completion

2017-07-01

Publications

• Background Xu H, Mehta AK, Gao Q, Lee HJ, Ghali A, Guasch A, Kirk AD. B cell reconstitution following alemtuzumab induction under a belatacept-based maintenance regimen. Am J Transplant. 2020 Mar;20(3):653-662. doi: 10.1111/ajt.15639. Epub 2019 Nov 13.
• Results Xu H, Bendersky VA, Brennan TV, Espinosa JR, Kirk AD. IL-7 receptor heterogeneity as a mechanism for repertoire change during postdepletional homeostatic proliferation and its relation to costimulation blockade-resistant rejection. Am J Transplant. 2018 Mar;18(3):720-730. doi: 10.1111/ajt.14589. Epub 2017 Dec 12.
• Results Xu H, Samy KP, Guasch A, Mead SI, Ghali A, Mehta A, Stempora L, Kirk AD. Postdepletion Lymphocyte Reconstitution During Belatacept and Rapamycin Treatment in Kidney Transplant Recipients. Am J Transplant. 2016 Feb;16(2):550-64. doi: 10.1111/ajt.13469. Epub 2015 Oct 5.
• Results Kirk AD, Guasch A, Xu H, Cheeseman J, Mead SI, Ghali A, Mehta AK, Wu D, Gebel H, Bray R, Horan J, Kean LS, Larsen CP, Pearson TC. Renal transplantation using belatacept without maintenance steroids or calcineurin inhibitors. Am J Transplant. 2014 May;14(5):1142-51. doi: 10.1111/ajt.12712. Epub 2014 Mar 31.
• Xu H, Lee HJ, Schmitz R, Shaw BI, Li S, Kirk AD. Age-related effects on thymic output and homeostatic T cell expansion following depletional induction in renal transplant recipients. Am J Transplant. 2021 Sep;21(9):3163-3174. doi: 10.1111/ajt.16625. Epub 2021 May 20.

Drugs

Indications