Safety and Efficacy of Treprostinil in Ischemia and Reperfusion Injury in Adult Orthotopic Liver Transplantation

An Evaluation of the Safety and Preliminary Efficacy of Perioperative Treprostinil in Preventing Ischemia and Reperfusion Injury in Adult Orthotopic Liver Transplant Recipients

The overall purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics and preliminary efficacy of a five-days post-operative course of Treprostinil in liver transplant patients.

The hypothesis of this study is that Treprostinil can be safely administered post-operatively in liver transplant patients. Once safety is documented future studies will address its ability to ameliorate or prevent reperfusion mediated dysfunction of the liver graft and thereby reduce morbidity, leading to shorter hospital stays as compared to historical controls.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Ischemia Reperfusion Injury
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Treprostinil

Detailed Description

Prostaglandin-class drugs, including prostacyclin and its analogs, could represent an important advance toward the goal of reducing transplant related morbidity, mortality and associated costs by minimizing the effect of ischemia and re perfusion injury of the liver graft. Additionally, the reduction in serum creatinine and reduced need for post operative dialysis observed in some studies has implications in protecting the kidneys from the nephrotoxic affects of the immunosuppressant agents, especially during the early post-operative period. Routine use of prostaglandins (PGE1 and PGI2), however, was limited by its instability and short half life.

Treprostinil, as a prostanoid (prostacyclin analog), is expected to facilitate restoration of the blood supply to the revascularized graft and provide the well-characterized protective effects of this class of compounds in liver transplant patients. Treprostinil has the advantage of a longer elimination half-life than other prostanoids previously tested in these patients. Treprostinil is expected to significantly protect the graft from ischemia and re perfusion injury.

This is a pilot study to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics and preliminary efficacy of Treprostinil in orthotopic liver transplant patients as a first step to evaluate its use in prevention of ischemia and reperfusion injury of the grafted liver.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 35
• Phase: Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15261
      • University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
    • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15261
      • Abhinav Humar

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 70 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Have signed appropriate informed consent.
2. Be between 18 years and 65 years of age.
3. Have been accepted as a liver transplant candidate at the University of Pittsburgh Medical center (UPMC).
4. Be receiving a cadaver donor liver transplant.
5. Be treated in accordance with the standard of care protocol(s) currently in effect for liver transplant recipients at the UPMC, including immunosuppression and other elements of pre- and post-operative care.

Exclusion Criteria:

Subjects must not:

1. Be receiving a living donor liver transplant.
2. Be receiving a donor liver with a cold ischemia time less than 5 hours or greater than 12 hours.
3. Be receiving any investigational drug (a drug other than Treprostinil administered under an IND) or participating in any other investigational study, with the exception of alemtuzumab (Campath).
4. Be receiving any prostanoid to treat portopulmonary hypertension.
5. Have had a failed liver transplant within the previous 180 days.
6. Be undergoing multi-organ transplantation (transplantation of organs other than liver at the same time as the liver transplantation procedure).
7. Have fulminant hepatic failure
8. Model for end stage liver diseases (MELD) score of > 40
9. Hepatitis C positive donor liver
10. On renal replacement therapy at the time of study
11. Be receiving any non-standard immunosuppression protocol or other non-standard treatment that could affect interpretation of the study results.
12. Those currently receiving treatment for portopulmonary hypertension.
13. Those with significant cardiovascular disease including treatment with inotropes.
14. Have any known hypersensitivity to prostaglandins, prostacyclin or treprostinil.
15. If female, be pregnant or nursing (as confirmed by urine pregnancy test at Baseline).
16. HIV positive
17. Individuals who are allergic to iodine
18. Individuals who are receiving methylene blue
19. A donor liver with macrosteatosis greater than 40% if biopsy results are available

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Treprostinil; This is a single center, open-label, dose-escalation Phase I/II study of Treprostinil.

Drug: Treprostinil; The Treatment Phase will begin at the initiation of Treprostinil after induction of anesthesia for the transplant surgery and continues throughout the surgery and for approximately a total of 120 hours. Treatment phase activities include: • Initiation of Treprostinil after the patient is hemodynamically stable following transplant surgery. (Treprostinil dosing will follow a standard 3 + 3 phase 1 design.; Other Names: Brand name: REMODULIN

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Serum ALT concentration after treprostinil treatment in liver transplant patients	The liver injury marker such as alanine aminotransferase (ALT) will be measured in order to evaluate the protective effect of treprostinil in liver transplant recipients.	Day 7

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Pharmacokinetics of treprostinil in liver transplant patients	Clearance and half life	0, 2, 4, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 72, 96 and 120 hrs during therapy and approximately 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 24 hr post study drug termination

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Abhinav Humar, MD
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Abhinav Humar, M.D., University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: December 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 18, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): November 24, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 20, 2011
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 27, 2011
• First Posted (Estimated): November 30, 2011

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 15, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 8, 2023
• Last Verified: December 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: liver transplantation; treprostinil
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Cardiovascular Diseases; Vascular Diseases; Postoperative Complications; Ischemia; Wounds and Injuries; Reperfusion Injury; Antihypertensive Agents; Treprostinil
• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY19100094