Recent compounds for immunosuppression and experimental therapies for acute graft-versus-host disease

Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a major source of morbidity and mortality after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Therapy of established acute GVHD depends heavily on corticosteroids, which have limited efficacy and are considerably toxic. It is still a matter of debate whether there is an alternative therapy to corticosteroids. Second-line treatment for acute GVHD after failure of steroidsis not well substantiated due to the lack of controlled studie This review examines the current treatment for acute GVHD, as well as novel therapeutics, such as cellular approlaches (e.g., adoptive transfer of mesenchymal stem cellt) and , enhancement of regulatory T cells (e.g., photopheresis). These approaches avoid the toxicity of generalized immunosuppression and are likely to play a prominent futurer ole in acute GVHD therapy.