Rejection Reversal

Rejection Reversal General Information

Each patient who is to undergo organ transplantation should be offered professional counseling and medical facts that are relevant in their learning of the risks that such a medical procedure could imply. One of the most important risks that are associated with such a clinical surgery is the possibility for the patient’s organism to reject the transplant (the new organ) which is known as rejection reversal. Such cases are considered severe medical emergencies, as they are able to put the individual’s life at a very high risk. In case the patient’s organism rejects the transplanted organ, it starts developing antibodies against it. In other words, one can say that the organism starts treating the transplanted organ as a harmful, foreign body which has to be destroyed.

There are several types of rejections; if a patient is diagnosed with hyper-acute rejection, his or her condition generally develops within minutes after they have undergone transplant. In such cases, immediate removal of the organ is needed, in order to avoid the patient’s development of a dangerous form of systemic inflammatory response. It is likely when dealing with xenotransplanted organs.

Another form of rejection, the acute type, generally develops 7 days after the patient has undergone transplant. However, an individual can develop this condition within the first 3 months after the surgery. Although a single episode of transplant rejection that has been dealt with in the adequate / professional manner is no reason for great concern, in case this medical condition occurs on a repeated basis, the patient is diagnosed with chronic rejection. If this is the case, this condition is considered due to a chronic response of the patient’s immune system against the organ / tissue that has been transplanted. In such cases, the patient should undergo a new surgery (transplant) after 10 years or so. Rejection Reversal is a therapy trial that aims to deal with such medical cases.

Rejection Reversal

Recent clinical studies have shown that a link between graft function and medical response to professional anti-rejection treatment options can be provided through histology. Such medical studies have mainly focused on Rejection Reversal in the case of patients who had undergone renal transplant. The results of the research have proven that there is a noticeable discrepancy between the histological and the clinical resolution of kidney allograft rejection. Each patient who has undergone a medical transplant should be tested for residual infiltrates in his or her graft. If such medical tests have shown that he or she should undergo a certain type of Rejection Reversal therapy, they should repeat these tests after the end of their treatment. Even if the test results show a certain improvement, extra caution still needs to be employed, as the patient may present a higher risk of experiencing this severe condition on a recurrent basis.

As the adequate Rejection Reversal treatment option that a patient is to be applied depends on the type of rejection that the individual presents, one of the main concerns of a health care practitioner who has to deal with such a clinical case is to establish the type of rejection that the patient is suffering from (we have described the main types of rejection in the previous chapter; for more detailed, professional medical facts please refer to your PD or to a surgeon). For example, there is no effective Rejection Reversal therapy for those who present chronic rejection (this condition is irreversible). In most cases, such individuals have to undergo re-transplantation. The use of chemotherapeutic medicines has proven very helpful in the case of individuals who presented acute rejection. In the early stages of his or her treatment, the patient has to follow a short course of corticosteroid-intake, in high doses. This therapy can be repeated or the patient can start a triple treatment regimen (the intake of anti-proliferative agents, that of calcineurin inhibitors and that of corticosteroids).

High-risk individuals can employ antibodies against certain components of their immune system in order to enhance the effectiveness of their Rejection Reversal therapy. Certain, selected individuals may be prescribed the use of mTOR medical inhibitors (these products are prescribed mainly in cases in which the patient does not respond well to a therapy with steroids or with calcineurin inhibitors). In case an unwanted attack of acute rejection is refractory to any of the therapy courses that we have listed above, the patient may have to undergo massive blood transfusions in order to clear his or her organism of the antibodies that fight against the transplanted organ.

In case the patient can undergo a bone marrow transplant, he or she should consider having their immune system replaced with that of their donor’s (this means that the risk of experiencing rejection will be severely diminished). However, this medical way of achieving Rejection Reversal will only be successful if the patient receives the transplant from their initial donor or the donor’s identical. It should be noted that this type of medical procedure does imply the risk of GVHD – the host tissues may be recognized as foreign organisms and can be attacked by the lymphoid cells which have been co-injected along with the transplant.

Rejection Reversal Treatment

Therapy courses such as Rejection Reversal are mainly based on the patient’s regular intake of immuno-suppressive medical products. In this chapter, we intend to present you a list of the most common drugs that fit into this category which can become part of your therapy course against transplant rejection. Some of the most effective immuno-suppressive remedies are medicines called calcineurin inhibitors (such as Tacrolimus, Cyclosporin, etc). However, the use of mTOR inhibitors (for example Everolimus, Sirolimus) or that of anti-proliferative medical agents (Mycophenolic Acid, Azathioprine) has also proven quite effective. Individuals who have been treated with corticosteroid drugs (the most common of them are Hydrocortisone and Prednisolone) also experienced an improvement of their initial condition.

The information that we have presented you here cannot replace the professional expertise of a well trained provider; if you are interested in learning more about the way in which these medicines act, about their main ingredients (their active components), and other related information, please refer to your medical prescriber. Your personal physician or your local pharmacist are able to give you a more complete list of the most common medical products which can be prescribed to a certain patient in order to induce the reversal of his or her unpleasant symptoms of transplant rejection.