[The Treatment of Acute Antibody-Mediated Rejection: Current State and Future Perspectives]

Despite the advances in the immunosuppressive therapies and improvements in short term allograft survival, Antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) still represents the leading cause of late allograft failure in kidney transplant recipients. We present an insidious case of late active AMR that evolved into a severe chronic active antibody-mediated rejection, that we treated with a multidrug approach. Then, we review the current literature on the pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of AMR. Antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) typically occurs when anti-HLA donor-specific antibodies (DSA) bind to vascular endothelial cells of the kidney graft. DSAs may preexist to transplantation (preformed DSA) or develop after transplantation (de novo DSA). Pathogenetic mechanisms of AMR involve complement-dependent, and -independent inflammatory pathways that are variably activated depending on antigen and antibody characteristics, or on whether rejection develops early (0-6 months) or late (beyond 6 months) post-transplantation. The Banff classification system categorizes AMR rejection into active antibody-mediated rejection, chronic active antibody-mediated rejection, and chronic (inactive) antibody-mediated rejection. Currently, there are no approved therapies, treatment guidelines being based on low-quality evidence. Therefore, standard of care therapy is consensus-based. In early rejection, it is usually based on plasma exchange, intravenous immune globulin, anti-CD20 antibodies, while complement-inhibitor eculizumab is used in severe and/or refractory cases, treatments with. Recent evidence suggests that late AMR may be effectively treated with anti-CD38 therapy, which targets long lived plasma cells and NK cells.