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From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— Researchers in Madison will explore a potential alternative treatment for kidney transplant rejection through an upcoming clinical trial.
The Program for Advanced Cell Therapy, which involves UW Health and the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, is starting the trial after the FDA in February approved an investigational new drug application for the project.
The program will enroll 18 kidney transplant patients at UW Health for the trial, which is slated to begin next year. The trial will select patients with signs of T-cell mediated kidney rejection, a key focus for the project.
This response occurs when an organ transplant recipient’s T-cells — a form of white blood cell — react to antigens in the body that distinguish between the patient’s own tissues and the transplanted ones. It can affect various parts of the organ and lead to transplant rejection, according to details from UW Health.
By taking cells from a patient’s lip, processing them at the PACT cell manufacturing facility at University Hospital and reintroducing them into the patient’s body, the researchers aim to treat these organ rejections. They’re using patients’ mesenchymal stromal cells, a form of stem cell with injury response functions.
The current standard treatment anti-rejection drugs suppress the immune system’s response to the transplanted organ, which is effective but comes with “serious possible side effects” such as a greater risk of cancer and infection. That’s according to Dr. Sandesh Parajuli, the principal investigator for the trial and an associate professor of medicine at the UW SMPH.
“We are excited to examine this therapy to see if it offers a better option that has very few to no side effects,” he said in a statement.
See the release below.
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