The goal of ATTAIN is to study whether using two drugs, Darzalex® and Nulojix®, together can lower the number of plasma cells in “highly sensitized” people on the kidney transplant waiting list.
Highly Sensitized Kidney Transplant Recipients
Your immune system protects your body from invaders, like bacteria or viruses, and can tell the difference between cells that belong to you and cells that don’t belong to you. This means that your immune system can also recognize that the cells in a donor’s kidney don’t belong to you and should be destroyed.
Before you get a kidney transplant, doctors run tests to find out if your immune system will react against potential kidney donors. If those tests show that you are “highly sensitized,” meaning your immune system will react against the donated organs of most people (9 out of 10), then it might take a very long time to find a donor kidney that your immune system will accept. Also, having a more reactive immune system makes it more likely that your body will reject the transplant.
ATTAIN and your Plasma Cells
Plasma cells are immune system cells that make antibodies. Antibodies are proteins that recognize foreign cells and signal that an immune response should occur. With fewer plasma cells, your immune system might make fewer antibodies to kidney donor cells. This could improve your chance of finding a “matching” kidney donor and reduce your risk of rejection after transplant.
We do not know whether you or anyone participating in this study will make fewer antibodies or be more likely to get a transplant.