A Trial of Two Steroid-Free Approaches Toward Mycophenolate Mofetil-Based Monotherapy Immunosuppression

Summary

This is an open label, single-center, randomized phase IV pilot study of steroid and calcineurin inhibitor avoidance in renal transplant recipients. All patients will receive two doses of alemtuzumab to achieve peripheral T-cell depletion. Intravenous glucocorticoids will be administered prior to alemtuzumab administration to limit cytokine release syndrome in association with this monoclonal antibody, and continued for the first two days post-transplant. Thereafter, steroids will not be used for immunosuppression. All transplant recipients will be started on oral immunosuppressive therapy with mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) prior to transplant. Pretransplant, these patients will be randomized to receive, in addition, either tacrolimus (Tac) or sirolimus.

After six months, patients in the tacrolimus arm who do not experience rejection will be randomized to continue on tacrolimus or to be converted to the combination of sirolimus and MMF. Individuals in this arm of the study who do not experience acute rejection, and demonstrate evidence of donor specific hyporesponsiveness at 9 months post-transplant (those staying on Tac + MMF) or 3 months post-conversion (those converted from Tac + MMF to sirolimus + MMF) will be weaned to MMF monotherapy.

Individuals in the sirolimus + MMF arm who do not experience acute rejection and demonstrate evidence of donor specific hyporesponsiveness at 6 months post-transplant will be weaned to MMF monotherapy.

Conditions

• Kidney Transplant Failure and Rejection

Interventions

DRUG

Tacrolimus (TAC)

Tacrolimus (TAC) will be given standard of care by prescription twice a day (2.0 mg), orally. Doses will be adjusted by serum levels. The dose will be modified to achieve 12 hour trough concentrations of 5-8 ng/mL.

DRUG

Sirolimus

Sirolimus will be given standard of care by prescription, dosed at 5mg daily. The dosage will be adjusted by serum level to achieve 24 hour trough concentrations of 8-12 ng/mL by HPLC assay.

DRUG

Alemtuzumab

Patients receiving alemtuzumab will be premedicated with 50mg of diphenhydramine hydrochloride, and 650mg of acetaminophen 30-60 minutes to the first Alemtuzumab infusion. The of 30mg will be diluted in 100cc sterile 0.9% normal saline and infused over 2 hours. The infusion line must contain an in-line 0.22-micron filter. Alemtuzumab will be administered on the day of transplant (intraoperatively), and on post-operative day 2. Both doses will be administered while the patient is in the hospital. Alemtuzumab is supplied in single-use clear glass ampoules containing 30mg of alemtuzumab in 3mL of solution.

DRUG

Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF)

MMF will be given at 1.0-1.5gm, twice daily, orally. The first dose will be given pre-transplant, open label fashion.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Roche Pharma AG

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• Northwestern University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Joseph R Leventhal, MD, PhD · Northwestern University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2005-04-30

Primary Completion

2010-04-30

Completion

2010-04-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations