Weaning Transplant Recipients from Immunosuppressive Drugs
The word "immunosuppression" is used to describe holding back (or suppressing) a person's immune system.
The immune system keeps people from getting sick by attacking "invaders" that can get into the body, like viruses or bacteria. This important function is not something one would normally want to suppress. However, immunosuppression is necessary to treat some medical conditions. One of those conditions is organ rejection after transplantation.
The body's immune system recognizes the difference between its own cells and foreign matter. It just can't tell the difference between harmful foreign cells and those that are helpful, such as the foreign tissues in a transplanted organ.
Transplant recipients commonly experience organ rejection because of this. "Rejection" means that the body's immune system attacks the donor organ's cells, reacting to them as if they were harmful. Medications that curb the immune system (called immunosuppressants) are essential for transplant recipients, because they prevent and treat rejection. The discovery of immunosuppressants — and the advances still being made — allow many transplant recipients to live longer, healthier lives.
Nevertheless, immunosuppression creates a new set of problems. People with suppressed immune systems are less likely to reject their transplanted organs, but also less able to fight off harmful "invaders." This leaves them vulnerable to infections and some types of cancer. Immunosuppressive drugs (also called "antirejection drugs") can also cause other side effects. Doctors use different combinations of medications, and work to maintain a delicate balance in each patient, to try to reduce the chances that an organ will be rejected.
At UPMC's Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, specialists are exploring the question of why some patients need less medication to accept transplanted organs than others. Novel strategies are under investigation, so that physicians can better understand when and how to wean transplant recipients from antirejection drugs