Warren symposium follows legacy of geneticist giant

If we want to understand how the brain creates memories, and how genetic disorders distort the brain’s machinery, then the fragile X gene is an ideal place to start. That’s why the Stephen T. Warren Memorial Symposium, taking place November 28-29 at Emory, will be a significant event for those interested in neuroscience and genetics. Stephen T. Warren, 1953-2021 Warren, the founding chair of Emory’s Department of Human Genetics, led an international team that discovered Read more

Mutations in V-ATPase proton pump implicated in epilepsy syndrome

Why and how disrupting V-ATPase function leads to epilepsy, researchers are just starting to figure Read more

Tracing the start of COVID-19 in GA

At a time when COVID-19 appears to be receding in much of Georgia, it’s worth revisiting the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Emory virologist Anne Piantadosi and colleagues have a paper in Viral Evolution on the earliest SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences detected in Georgia. Analyzing relationships between those virus sequences and samples from other states and countries can give us an idea about where the first COVID-19 infections in Georgia came from. We can draw Read more
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costimulation blockers

Mopping up immune troublemakers after transplant

Emory scientists have identified a way to stop troublemaker cells that are linked to immune rejection after kidney transplant. The finding could eventually allow transplant patients to keep their new kidneys for as long as possible, without the side effects that come from some current options for controlling immune rejection.

The results are published in Journal of Clinical Investigation.

The standard drugs used for many years, calcineurin inhibitors, show side effects on cardiovascular health and can even damage the kidneys over time. A newer FDA-approved medication called belatacept, developed in part at Emory, avoids these harmful effects but is less effective at stopping acute rejection immediately after the transplant. Belatacept is a “costimulation blocker” – it interferes with a signal some immune cells (T cells) need to proliferate and become activated.

Researchers led by Emory transplant surgeon Andrew Adams, MD, PhD suspected that long-lasting memory CD8+ T cells were resistant to belatacept’s effects.

“Our previous work identified that memory CD8+ T cells may be elevated in animals and human patients who go on to reject their transplanted organs while taking belatacept,” says Dave Mathews, an MD/PhD student who worked with Adams and is the first author of the paper.

The researchers identified a certain marker, CD122, which was present on memory CD8+ T cells and important for their activity. On T cells, CD122 acts as a receiving dish for two other secreted molecules, IL-2 and IL-15, generally thought of as inflammatory cytokines, or protein messengers that can encourage graft rejection. Read more

Posted on October 1, 2018 by Quinn Eastman in Immunology Leave a comment

Troublemaker cells predict immune rejection after kidney transplant

Emory scientists have identified troublemaker cells—present in some patients before kidney transplantation—that are linked to immune rejection after transplant. Their results could guide transplant specialists in the future by helping to determine which drug regimens would be best for different groups of patients. Eventually, the findings could lead to new treatments that improve short- and long-term outcomes.

Transplant patients used to have no choice but to take non-specific drugs to prevent immune rejection of their new kidneys. While these drugs, called calcineurin inhibitors, are effective at preventing early rejection, they lack specificity for the immune system and ironically can damage the very kidneys they are intended to protect. In addition, their side effects lead to higher rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, ultimately shortening the life of the transplant recipient. This changed with the advent of costimulation blockers, which avoid these harmful side effects. Emory transplant surgeons Chris Larsen and Tom Pearson, together with Bristol-Myers Squibb, helped develop one of these new drugs called belatacept, which blocks signals through the costimulatory receptor CD28.

In a long-term clinical study of belatacept, kidney transplant patients tended to live longer with better transplant function when taking belatacept compared with calcineurin inhibitors. Despite these desirable outcomes, acute rejection rates were higher in patients treated with belatacept.

Andrew Adams, an Emory transplant surgeon who focuses on costimulation blockade research, notes: “While the acute rejection seen with belatacept is treatable with stronger immunosuppression, there may be long-term effects that linger and impair late outcomes.”

Most transplant centers have not yet adopted this new therapy as their standard of care because of the higher rejection rate as well as other logistical concerns, thus limiting patients’ access to potential health benefits afforded with belatacept treatment.

Adams and colleague Mandy Ford have identified certain types of memory T cells, which typically provide long-lasting immunity to infection, as potential mischief-makers in the setting of organ transplants treated with belatacept. Evidence is accumulating that the presence of certain memory T cells can predict the likelihood of “belatacept-resistant” rejection. Two recent papers in American Journal of Transplantation by Ford and Adams support this idea. Read more

Posted on September 7, 2017 by Quinn Eastman in Immunology Leave a comment

Improving long-term outcomes after kidney transplant

Twenty years of research and you start to improve outcomes for transplant patients.

The Nature paper from Chris Larsen and Tom Pearson on “costimulation blockers” and their ability to head off graft rejection in rodents first appeared in 1996.

Almost 20 years later, a seven-year study of kidney transplant recipients has shown that the drug belatacept, a costimulation blocker based on Larsen and Pearson’s research, has a better record of patient and organ survival than a calcineurin inhibitor, previously the standard of care.

Kidney transplant recipients need to take drugs to prevent their immune systems from rejecting their new organs, but the drugs themselves can cause problems. Long-term use of calcineurin inhibitors, such as tacrolimus, can damage the transplanted kidneys and lead to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

In the accompanying video, Larsen - now dean of Emory University School of Medicine – and Pearson - executive director of Emory Transplant Center – explain.

Belatacept was approved by the FDA in 2011 and is produced by Bristol Myers Squibb. Results from the BENEFIT study of belatacept, led by Larsen and UCSF transplant specialist Flavio Vincenti, were published in the Jan. 28 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

To go with the paper, NEJM has an editorial with some revealing statistics (more than 14,000 of the 101,000 patients listed for kidney transplantation are waiting for a repeat transplant) and a explanatory video. MedPage Today has an interview with Larsen, and HealthDay has a nice discussion of the issues surrounding post-transplant drugs. Read more

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Quinn Eastman in Immunology Leave a comment

Catching up on Emory transplant advances

While preparing to discuss Ebola virology with Emory infectious disease specialist Aneesh Mehta next week, we noticed two recent research papers on which he is a co-author. Both have to do with organ transplantation, since Mehta is Assistant Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases.

Fecal microbiota transplantation for refractory Clostridium difficile colitis in solid organ transplant recipients

Fecal transplant is gaining ground as a remedy for C. difficile-driven diarrheal infections, which can appear in patients whose normal intestinal bacteria are wiped out by antibiotics. Fecal transplant has not been widely studied in organ transplant recipients, who must take drugs to keep their immune systems from rejecting the transplanted organ, because of concerns about infectious disease complications. This paper describes two patients, one a lung transplant recipient and one a kidney transplant recipient, who received fecal transplants to resolve their C. difficile diarrhea without complications. The lead authors are infectious disease specialists Rachel Friedman-Moraco and Colleen Kraft. Kraft has been a pioneer in this area of research.

Renal transplantation using belatacept without maintenance steroids or calcineurin inhibitors

Medical school dean Chris Larsen and Emory Transplant Center executive director Tom Pearson (both co-authors) were key members on the team that developed belatacept, a FDA-approved drug since 2011. Belatacept was designed to get away from the cruel paradox where a kidney recipient, to prevent transplant rejection, has to take calcineurin inhibitor drugs that slowly poison the kidney and cardiovascular health. Belatacept inhibits the immune response by a different mechanism. Yet transplant specialists have generally been cautious in moving toward a regimen that relies on it.

As reported in this paper, Emory transplant doctors took off the training wheels, aiming to get to the point where kidney transplant recipients are taking a once-a-month infusion of belatacept only. With some patients, it was possible to reach that goal, but not all. In fact, as the authors describe, some patients chose not to try to wean themselves off the other drugs, and doctors advised against the attempt for a handful. This clinical trial was also notable because some transplant recipients received immune-educational cells from their organ donors in the form of bone marrow.

The lead author, former Emory Transplant Center scientific director Allan Kirk, moved to Duke this spring.

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Quinn Eastman in Immunology Leave a comment