The Calcineurin Inhibitor-Sparing (CIS) Trial - individualised calcineurin-inhibitor treatment by immunomonitoring in renal allograft recipients: protocol for a randomised controlled trial

摘要

BackgroundAdequate monitoring tools are required to optimise the immunosuppressive therapy of an individual patient. Particularly, in calcineurin inhibitors, as critical dose drugs with a narrow therapeutic range, the optimal monitoring strategies are discussed in terms of safety and efficacy. Nevertheless, no pharmacokinetic monitoring markers reflect the biological activity of the drug. A new quantitative analysis of gene expression was employed to directly measure the functional effects of calcineurin inhibition: the transcriptional activities of the nuclear factor of activated T-cell (NFAT)-regulated genes in the peripheral blood.