title: Emerging drugs in lung transplantation.
abstract: The balance between immunosuppression to ensure graft tolerance while preventing emergence of infectious complications is key in lung transplantation. Although opportunistic infection may appear to be the most important of these complications, malignancies and severe drug toxicities significantly affect the short- and long-term outcomes of the patients. The present practice is combination therapy using drugs with complementary immunosuppressive action, to achieve synergistic immunosuppression with the lowest possible toxicity. Components of immunosuppression include induction and maintenance regimens. Primary graft failure remains an important cause of mortality and morbidity in the immediate post-transplant period. Acute rejection is a common complication after lung transplant, but responds well to augmented immunosuppression and immunomodulation. Chronic rejection still is the major cause of mortality in patients who survive the initial year post-transplantation. Several new drugs have shown promise in decreasing the rate of loss of graft function. This review discusses the current and emerging therapeutic regimens.
authors.affiliation: Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care, Lung transplant program, Houston, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Babith
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mankidy
authors.forename: Ramesh B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Kesavan
authors.forename: Yavuz S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Silay
authors.forename: Tarik J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Haddad
authors.forename: Harish
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Seethamraju
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016040:Lung Transplantation
chemical_list: D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents