Browsing by Author "Wellen, Jason R."

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    The demise of islet allotransplantation in the United States: A call for an urgent regulatory update
    (Wiley, 2021-04) Witkowski, Piotr; Philipson, Louis H.; Kaufman, Dixon B.; Ratner, Lloyd E.; Abouljoud, Marwan S.; Bellin, Melena D.; Buse, John B.; Kandeel, Fouad; Stock, Peter G.; Mulligan, David C.; Markmann, James F.; Kozlowski, Tomasz; Andreoni, Kenneth A.; Alejandro, Rodolfo; Baidal, David A.; Hardy, Mark A.; Wickrema, Amittha; Mirmira, Raghavendra G.; Fung, John; Becker, Yolanda T.; Josephson, Michelle A.; Bachul, Piotr J.; Pyda, Jordan S.; Charlton, Michael; Millis, J. Michael; Gaglia, Jason L.; Stratta, Robert J.; Fridell, Jonathan A.; Niederhaus, Silke V.; Forbes, Rachael C.; Jayant, Kumar; Robertson, R. Paul; Odorico, Jon S.; Levy, Marlon F.; Harland, Robert C.; Abrams, Peter L.; Olaitan, Oyedolamu K.; Kandaswamy, Raja; Wellen, Jason R.; Japour, Anthony J.; Desai, Chirag S.; Naziruddin, Bashoo; Balamurugan, Appakalai N.; Barth, Rolf N.; Ricordi, Camillo; Surgery, School of Medicine
    Islet allotransplantation in the United States (US) is facing an imminent demise. Despite nearly three decades of progress in the field, an archaic regulatory framework has stymied US clinical practice. Current regulations do not reflect the state-of-the-art in clinical or technical practices. In the US, islets are considered biologic drugs and “more than minimally manipulated” human cell and tissue products (HCT/Ps). In contrast, across the world, human islets are appropriately defined as “minimally manipulated tissue” and not regulated as a drug, which has led to islet allotransplantation (allo-ITx) becoming a standard-of-care procedure for selected patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. This regulatory distinction impedes patient access to islets for transplantation in the US. As a result only 11 patients underwent allo-ITx in the US between 2016 and 2019, and all as investigational procedures in the settings of a clinical trials. Herein, we describe the current regulations pertaining to islet transplantation in the United States. We explore the progress which has been made in the field and demonstrate why the regulatory framework must be updated to both better reflect our current clinical practice and to deal with upcoming challenges. We propose specific updates to current regulations which are required for the renaissance of ethical, safe, effective, and affordable allo-ITx in the United States.
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    Efficacy and Safety of Bleselumab in Preventing the Recurrence of Primary Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis in Kidney Transplant Recipients: A Phase 2a, Randomized, Multicenter Study
    (Wolters Kluwer, 2024) Shoji, Jun; Goggins, William C.; Wellen, Jason R.; Cunningham, Patrick N.; Johnston, Olwyn; Chang, Shirley S.; Solez, Kim; Santos, Vicki; Larson, Tami J.; Takeuchi, Masahiro; Wang, Xuegong; Surgery, School of Medicine
    Background: Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is a common cause of end-stage kidney disease and frequently recurs after kidney transplantation. Recurrent FSGS (rFSGS) is associated with poor allograft and patient outcomes. Bleselumab, a fully human immunoglobulin G4 anti-CD40 antagonistic monoclonal antibody, disrupts CD40-related processes in FSGS, potentially preventing rFSGS. Methods: A phase 2a, randomized, multicenter, open-label study of adult recipients (aged ≥18 y) of a living or deceased donor kidney transplant with a history of biopsy-proven primary FSGS. The study assessed the efficacy of bleselumab combined with tacrolimus and corticosteroids as maintenance immunosuppression in the prevention of rFSGS >12 mo posttransplantation, versus standard of care (SOC) comprising tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil, and corticosteroids. All patients received basiliximab induction. The primary endpoint was rFSGS, defined as proteinuria (protein-creatinine ratio ≥3.0 g/g) with death, graft loss, or loss to follow-up imputed as rFSGS, through 3 mo posttransplant. Results: Sixty-three patients were followed for 12 mo posttransplantation. Relative decrease in rFSGS occurrence through 3 mo with bleselumab versus SOC was 40.7% (95% confidence interval, -89.8 to 26.8; P = 0.37; absolute decrease 12.7% [95% confidence interval, -34.5 to 9.0]). Central-blinded biopsy review found relative (absolute) decreases in rFSGS of 10.9% (3.9%), 17.0% (6.2%), and 20.5% (7.5%) at 3, 6, and 12 mo posttransplant, respectively; these differences were not statistically significant. Adverse events were similar for both treatments. No deaths occurred during the study. Conclusions: In at-risk kidney transplant recipients, bleselumab numerically reduced proteinuria occurrence versus SOC, but no notable difference in occurrence of biopsy-proven rFSGS was observed.