Current and Future Immunosuppressive Therapies Following Transplantation / Edition 1

by Giuseppe Remuzzi

Overview

This title provides a comprehensive and state-of-the-art summary of current and future immunosuppressive strategies in transplantation, with emphasis on the basic science mechanisms and clinical applicability of these strategies. The uniqueness of this book is the inclusion of up-to-date information on the basic mechanisms of actions of the immunosuppressive drugs as well as a summary of the clinical trials data and the potential use of these drugs in clinical organ transplantation. In addition to describing the various immunosuppressive strategies, the book has three special features, including immunosuppression in xenotransplantation, gene therapy approaches, and transplantation tolerance. A group of outstanding investigators have been assembled to write the chapters. The book is intended for the transplant professional and the specialist who wants to stay abreast of the current status of immunosuppression in organ transplantation. The book is also useful for basic scientists who work in the field of transplantation immunology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789401038768
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	09/12/2012
Edition description:	2001
Pages:	388
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.45(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

Sayegh, Mohamed H.; Remuzzi, Giuseppe

Table of Contents

I. Introduction.- 1. The History of Immunosuppression for Organ Transplantation.- 2. Clinical Trials in Transplant Immunosuppression: What Have We Learned?.- II. Pharmacological Immunosuppression.- 1. Pharmacologic Monitoring of Immunosuppressive Drugs.- 2. Use of Corticosteroids in Kidney Transplantation.- 3. Mycophenolate Mofetil and Azathioprine.- 4. Cyclosporine Formulations.- 5. Tacrolimus.- 6. Sirolimus.- 7. New Agents on the Horizon.- III. Biologicals.- 1. Why Do We Need Induction Therapy?.- 2. Polyclonal Antilymphocyte Therapy.- 3. Monoclonal Antibody Targeting of the T cell Receptor Complex.- 4. Monoclonal Antibody Targeting of IL-2R-Complex.- 5. Monoclonal Antibody Targeting of Adhesion Molecules.- 6. Costimulation Blocade.- 7. Immunomodulatory Function of MHC Peptides.- 8. Tolerance: Is It Time to Move to the Clinic?.- IV. Gene Therapy.- 1. Molecular Medicine in Organ Transplantation: How and When?.- 2. Gene Therapy in Organ Transplantation: Applicabilities and Shortcomings.- 3. Immunomodulation Strategies in Xenotransplantation.

Editorial Reviews

3 Stars from Doody

Reviewer: Karen L Hardinger, PharmD, BCPS (Barnes-Jewish Hospital)
Description: This book reviews current and future immunosuppressive agents in 20 chapters divided into four sections (introduction, maintenance immunosuppressive agents, induction agents or rejection agents, and gene therapy).
Purpose: The purpose of the book is not clearly defined, although there is an introduction that outlines the history of immunosuppressive agents and pivotal clinical trials. I assume that the objectives are to review current pharmacology and clinical evidence of available immunosuppressive agents and to outline future directions in immunotherapy. The author meets these objectives.
Audience: This book is intended for practitioners and training practitioners in the area of solid organ transplant desiring to learn more or review the available information on immunosuppressive therapies. The authors are credible authorities.
Features: A review of the history of immunosuppression and current clinical trials in solid organ transplant begins the book. The first chapter, intended to be a history of immunosuppression, accomplishes that in the first part of the chapter while the latter part focuses on the journey to development of sirolimus. It is interesting that much of the chapter focuses on this relatively new drug (9 references) and not on tacrolimus and cyclosporine, known to have significantly improved outcomes in transplantation (9 references). The contributions of anti-thymocyte antibody preparations are overlooked. The chapter on pharmacologic monitoring is not clinically helpful and at times inaccurate. Most of the chapters that review each immunosuppressive agent are well written, comprehensive reviews. But some chapters seemed to be presented with a certain bias, focusing only on center-specific data where multicenter, peer-reviewed data is available. Section three, outlining available biologicals, is well developed and helpful. In one chapter on monoclonal antibody targeting of the IL-2 complex, conclusions are stated from early abstract data. although this was not pointed out. The last chapters in this section comprehensively review future strategies of biologicals and tolerance. Lastly, a review of gene therapy is presented. Unfortunately, there are many typos in the book, including in chapter titles and figures. Some pictures are fuzzy and hard to read and others do not include legends. The best aspects of the book are the chapters on future agents, steroids, and antimetabolites.
Assessment: In general, the book successfully compressed 50 years of transplant immunosuppression into 385 pages. It is well organized and informative and the book will be useful to readers in the field of transplantation.

Doody's Review Service