Cloning pigs and drug discovery among 'h...( o regulate immune responses far more sp...)

o regulate immune responses far more specifically and effectively than ever before, reported Dr. Randall E. Morris, head of transplantation and immunology research at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, AG, on leave from Stanford University School of Medicine, where he is professor of cardiothoracic surgery. Newly discovered drugs, some which currently are in development, are likely to have a great impact on the success of achieving transplant tolerance as well. "While drug-free tolerance regimens remain the ideal, current and future advances in immunosuppression will hold all drug-free tolerance regimens--especially for solid organ recipients--to increasingly higher standards of long-term efficacy, safety and logistical feasibility," he told congress participants.

Genomics, the science of identifying and processing DNA sequences, will play an increasingly important role in the quest to achieve tolerance. Dr. Vicki Seyfert-Margolis, executive director of the Tolerance Assay Group at the Immune Tolerance Network, said small-scale gene expression profiling has led to the identification of genes that appear to be stimulated when acute rejection occurs following kidney transplantation. "Application of global gene and/or protein expression profiling in transplantation offers the opportunity to identify new surrogate markers for monitoring the effect on cell function of certain drugs and immune response following transplantation," she explained.

With appropriate timing and dosage of immunosuppression, tolerance is more likely to result, says Dr. Thomas E. Starzl, professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. A new strategy, whose origins go back to clinical experience of 40 years ago, seeks to safeguard the steps necessary for tolerance to occur. Instead of the standard approach of giving patients high doses of immunosuppression as soon as the organ is transplanted, the strategy involves giving a one-time dose of a drug to deplet
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Contact: Lisa Rossi
press@txmiami2002.com
412-916-3315
Transplantation Society
28-Aug-2002


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