Use of DNA Testing to Help Transition Kidney Transplant Recipients to Belatacept-only Immunosuppression

Use of Donor Derived-cell Free DNA (AlloSure) to Facilitate Belatacept Monotherapy in Kidney Transplant Patients

The purpose of the study is to identify kidney transplant patients that can be transitioned from multi-drug immunosuppression therapy to Belatacept monotherapy, using cell free DNA and gene expression as markers of immune quiescence. The primary objective will be to determine if donor derived-cell free DNA (AlloSure) can be utilized to facilitate Belatacept monotherapy, and to determine if Belatacept is safe and effective as immunosuppression in kidney transplant recipients. The secondary objective is to determine the utility of AlloMap as a predictor of immune quiescence and tolerance of immunosuppressive de-escalation to Belatacept monotherapy, and to evaluate the performance of iBox in predicting adverse outcomes in patients transitioned to Belatacept monotherapy

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Kidney Transplant Immunosuppression
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Belatacept

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 25
• Phase: Phase 4

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: David Wojciechowski, DO; Phone Number: 214-645-8300; Email: David.Wojciechowski@UTSouthwestern.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Dallas, Texas, United States, 75390
      • Recruiting
      • UT Southwestern Medical Center
      • Contact: David Wojciechowski, DO; Email: David.Wojciechowski@UTSouthwestern.edu
      • Principal Investigator: David Wojciechowski, DO
      • Contact: Cyrus Feizpour, MD; Email: cyrus.feizpour@utsouthwestern.edu
      • Sub-Investigator: Cyrus Feizpour, MD

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 16 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adult (>18 years) recipients of a kidney-only transplant, including re-transplants
• Non-HLA identical Living or Deceased Donor Grafts
• Able to provide informed consent
• Absence of donor specific antigens
• Stable renal function (eGFR>40mL/min for 3 months prior to enrollment)
• Patients treated with Belatacept as part of de novo immunosuppression or converted to Belatacept with stable kidney function for 3 months (as stated above)
• Patients who underwent kidney transplantation at least 9 months prior to study entry

Exclusion Criteria:

• Prior or concurrent non-kidney organ transplants
• Presence of BK nephropathy in current graft
• Recipient on any other investigational drug in the 12 weeks prior to inclusion
• Patient with history of recent (<3mo), recurrent, or severe (Banff Grade 2 or greater or unable to be treated with steroids) acute rejection episodes
• Female participant who is pregnant, lactating or planning pregnancy during the course of the trial
• Significant hepatic impairment
• Bilateral kidney transplantation
• Any other significant disease or disorder which, in the opinion of the Investigator, may either put the participants at risk because of participation in the trial, or may influence the result of the trial, or the participant's ability to participate in the trial

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: Immunosuppression Taper; Patients included in this arm are kidney transplant recipients with stable kidney function currently on or are converting to a Belatacept based immunosuppression regimen. Eligible patients who are deemed immune quiescent after a 3 month monitoring period will undergo sequential withdrawal of immunosuppression medications over a 12 month period from a three drug regimen to a Belatacept only immunosuppression regimen. During the total 15 month period patients will be monitored with monthly clinic visits, blood draws for routine monitoring as well as donor derived cell free DNA and genetic testing through KidneyCare to monitor immune suppression.

Drug: Belatacept; Patients will have tapering of their multi-drug immunosuppression, until Belatacept is the sole medication in their immunosuppression regimen. Belatacept will be administered as an infusion, as is routinely done clinically.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of patients with acute kidney graft rejection	Number of patients with Acute kidney graft rejection confirmed by biopsy by 2017 Banff Criteria. Incidence of biopsy proven acute kidney graft rejection at 12 months after the start of immunosuppression taper	12 months after the date of the first immunosuppression taper

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of patients who died	Incidence of death will be measured from 12 months after the start of immunosuppresion wean, up to 36 months	12 months after the start of immunosuppression wean, up to 36 months
Number of patients with kidney graft failure	Incidence of kidney graft failure will be measured from the start of immunosuppresion wean until 12 months after. Graft failure is defined as date of patient death or date of retransplant	12 months after the start of immunosuppression wean
Mean change in Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR)	Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in blood will be measured at the beginning of enrollment and the difference will be measured to the end of the study as a measure of change in kidney function.	Baseline, 12 months after the start of immunosuppression wean
Number of participants with Proteinuria	Proteinuria will be detected by a semiquantitative method of the protein concentration in urine.	12 months after the start of immunosuppression wean
Number of participants with appearance of de-novo donor specific antibodies (dnDSA)	HLA type I and type II in blood will be used to detect the presence of de-novo donor specific antibodies (dnDSA)	12 months after the start of immunosuppression wean
Negative predictable value as measured by AlloMap®	Negative predictable value measured by AlloMap®, expressed as a percent, that the patient is not experiencing rejection at the time of testing. AlloMap® is a panel of 20 gene assays, 11 informative and 9 used for normalization and/or quality control, which produces gene expression data used in the calculation of an AlloMap test score - an integer ranging from 0 to 40. Compared with patients in the same post- transplant period, the lower the score, the lower the probability of acute cellular rejection at the time of testing.	12 months after the start of immunosuppression wean
Mean prediction score of allograft loss as measured by iBox	iBox is the validated tool for predicting the risk of kidney transplant loss based on artificial intelligence. Range of score is 0%-100%, higher score indicates better kidney survival.	12 months after the start of immunosuppression wean

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
• Collaborators: CareDx
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: David Wojciechowski, DO, UT Southwestern Medical Center; Principal Investigator: Cyrus Feizpour, MD, UT Southwestern Medical Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 28, 2021
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2025
• Study Completion (Estimated): March 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 23, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 3, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): March 8, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): March 1, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 28, 2024
• Last Verified: February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Physiological Effects of Drugs; Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action; Antirheumatic Agents; Antineoplastic Agents; Immunosuppressive Agents; Immunologic Factors; Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors; Abatacept
• Other Study ID Numbers: STU-2020-1339; CTA202012-0033 (Other Grant/Funding Number: CareDx)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: Yes
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No