Current Biochemical Monitoring and Risk Management of Immunosuppressive Therapy after Transplantation

J Med Biochem. 2017 Jan 25;36(1):1-7. doi: 10.1515/jomb-2016-0029. eCollection 2017 Jan.

Abstract

Immunosuppressive drugs play a crucial role in the inhibition of immune reaction and prevention of graft rejection aswell as in the pharmacotherapy of autoimmune disorders. Effective immunosuppression should provide an adequate safety profile and improve treatment outcomes and the patients' quality of life. High-risk transplant recipients may be identified, but a definitive prediction model has still not been recognized. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) for immunosuppressive drugs is an essential, but at the same time insufficient tool due to low predictability of drug exposition and marked pharmacokinetic variability. Parallel therapeutic, biochemical and clinical monitoring may successfully optimize and individualize therapy for transplanted recipients, providing optimal medical outcomes. Modern pharmacotherapy management should include new biomarkers with better sensitivity and specificity that can identify early cell damage. The aim of this study was to point out the importance of finding new biomarkers that would enable early detection of adverse drug events and cell damage in organ transplant recipients. We wanted to confirm the importance of routine biochemical monitoring in improving the safety of immunosuppressive treatment.

Imunosupresivni protokol ima značajnu ulogu u inhibiciji imunog odgovora prilikom transplantacije organa, kao i u farmakoterapiji autoimunih bolesti. Efektivna imunosupresija mora posedovati odgovarajući bezbednosni profil i obezbediti pozitivne terapijske odgovore i bolji kvalitet života pacijenta. Do sada nije definisan model koji pređvila rizik za pacijente sa transplantiranim organom, iako su prepoznati najznačajniji faktori rizika. Terapijski monitoring imunosupresivnih lekova (TDM) osnovno je, ali ne i dovoljno sredstvo za predviđanje ukupne izloženosti organizma lekovima sa varijabilnom kinetikom. Istovremeni terapijski, biohemijski i klinički monitoring mogu uspešno prilagoditi terapiju individualnom pacijentu sa optimalnim medicinskim odgovorima. Savremeno upravljanje terapijom trebalo bi da uključi nove biomarkere, čija senzitivnost i specifičnost omogućavaju identifikaciju ranog ćelijskog oštećenja. Cilj ovog rada je da istakne važnost pronalaženja novih biomarkera koji bi imali mogućnost rane detekcije neželjenih efekata lekova i ćelijskog oštećenja kod pacijenata sa transplantiranim organom. Pored toga, razmatran je značaj rutinskog biohemijskog monitoringa u svrhu poboljšanja bezbednosti imunosupresivnog protokola.

Keywords: biochemical monitoring; biomarkers; organ transplantation; risk management.