Credit: interpharma
Anticipate transplant rejection
An article from Sara Käch with Professor Claudia Lengerke, Basel, Newsroom Interpharma, March 2017
The central point for succeeding a transplant is for the organ not to be rejected. A research project with Basel is developing a new diagnostic tool to help reducing transplant rejection process. The project “Tridiag – New diagnostic tools in transplantation medicine” brings together researchers from Basel, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Mainz and Strasbourg. Their common goal: prevent kidney transplant rejection and graft-versus-host disease in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for a longer life expectancy. Specific genetic markers have to match between the donor and the recipient in order for the transplanted organ not to be rejected or the transplanted cells to consider the recipient as ”non-self” (graft-versus-host disease).
These past few years, scientists discovered a protein named MICA, which has an important role in the graft rejection: if donor and recipient have the same version (allele) of the MICA protein, rejection is 20% lower than when the version is different.
Level of rejection
Why is MICA so important for the success of a transplant? “MICA belongs to the group of MHC proteins (Major Histocompatibility Complex). Thanks to this protein group, immune cells can recognize foreign (non-self) structures in human cells and eradicate them. These foreign structures come from infections or degeneration but also when donor and recipient of an organ transplant are too different. The expression of MHC (and MICA) in the donor cells in comparison with the one from the recipient indicate therefore in a very significant way the rate of rejection potential.” Explains Claudia Lengerke, Professor and researcher in the field of hematology and stem cells at the University of Basel and Head physician at the University Hospital of Basel.
Improved prognosis
The purpose of the cooperation project is to identify how much the variation of MICA between the donor and the recipient and the anti-MICA antibodies in their blood can enable to provide in a reliable way for the success of the transplants. “In Basel, our project is to focus on the analysis of patients who become hematopoietic stem” says Claudia Lengerke. “We look for the relevant prognostic of the anti-MICA antibodies in the serum and the genetic differences in the MICA molecules. What is of interest for us, is to know how such differences affect the future transplant rejection and the graft-versus-host disease.”
The basel researcher points the fact that MICA is not the only protein which impacts rejection. Moreover, there is not always a perfectly matched donor available for each patient needing a transplant. “We expect that the results of this project will enable to lower the percentage of rejection and graft-versus-host disease for at least some patients and will improve their survival rate.”
Original article: http://newsroom.interpharma.ch/2017-03-08-abstossung-voraussehen
