Rapamycin effective in preventing organ rejection

As part of the on-going research on immunosuppressants some interesting findings have come up. Laurence A. Turka of the University of Pennsylvania and Terry B. Strom of Harvard Medical School and colleagues found that in mice with heart transplants, the use of CTLA4lg and CD40 ligand promoted T-cell apoptosis and prevented the growth of more destructive T-cells. The use of rapamycin (Rapamune) to the treatment regimen preserved the apoptotic effect in addition to acting as a general immunosuppressive drug. However, when cyclosporine was added to the regimen organ rejection increased. These findings were published in the November 1^st, 1999 issue of Nature Medicine (1999; 5:1298-1302 and 1999; 5:1303-1307).