[Immunosuppressive treatment after kidney transplant: the frontier of chronic antibody-mediated rejection]

Abstract

The recognition of antibody-mediated rejection as an important factor in the reduction of long-term renal graft survival represents a new challenge to the immunosuppressive strategies of recent years, which have been quite successful in reducing the acute rejection rates as well as the side effects of pharmacological immunosuppression. The search for an effective treatment of chronic anti-donor antibody disease has been pursued mostly through limited single-center experiences and therefore in a dispersed fashion, without leading to the definition of a consolidated approach. The most frequently used pharmacological approaches stem from the experience of antibody-mediated acute rejection. In this review we will critically analyze the results reported so far of various intervention strategies and we will discuss future pharmacological novelties targeting the humoral immune response.