Purpose: Acute cellular rejection is the major cause of immune-mediated graft failure early in the course of kidney transplantation, whereas chronic antibody-mediated rejection is a major contributor to graft loss in the late post-transplant phase. Based mainly on the results of short-term studies, the calcineurin inhibitor tacrolimus prevails over the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors. However, the toxicity profile of the two drug categories differs, making the interchange between them appealing. In this study, the effect of tacrolimus and of the mTOR inhibitor everolimus on cellular and humoral alloimmunity was evaluated.
Methods: Cellular alloimmunity was assessed by cell proliferation in two-way mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) with human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). For assessing humoral alloimmunity, we developed a method in which humoral alloimmunity was induced in a one-way MLR. The de novo production of alloantibodies was measured with an antibody-mediated complement-dependent cytotoxicity assay, in which supernatants from the above MLRs were used against resting PBMC similar to the stimulator cells of the forementioned MLRs. Tacrolimus and everolimus were used at concentrations near their upper recommended trough levels.
Results: In two-way MLRs, tacrolimus inhibited cell proliferation more than everolimus. In one-way MLRs, tacrolimus and everolimus decreased alloantibody production to the same extent.
Conclusions: In human cell cultures, everolimus is inferior to tacrolimus in inhibiting cellular alloimmunity, but equally effective as regards humoral alloimmunity. Thus, everolimus might be a safe alternative in case of tacrolimus toxicity, particularly after the early period of kidney transplantation.
Keywords: Cellular alloimmunity; Everolimus; Humoral alloimmunity; Tacrolimus; Transplantation.