Background: Kidney transplantation in HIV-infected patients is characterized by a concerning high rate of allograft rejections. The etiological mechanisms leading to this increased immunoreactivity are still unknown. Maraviroc is a new antiretroviral agent that has been associated with immunomodulatory proprieties; therefore, its use may be a promising strategy to minimize the rate of rejections in HIV-infected kidney transplant (KT) recipients.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective study in our cohort of HIV-KT recipients with the aim to explore the effects of maraviroc in reducing the risk of graft rejection.
Results: Twenty-two HIV-infected KT recipients predominantly of Caucasian origin (86%) and with a median age of 49 (IQR, 51.9-42.2) years were evaluated. Ten HIV-infected patients were treated with maraviroc and 12 with a maraviroc-free antiretroviral regimen. After a median follow-up of 3.01 years, half of the maraviroc-treated patients (n = 5) developed seven episodes of graft rejection, most of them were T cell-mediated rejections (85.7%). Five episodes were recorded in the maraviroc-free group. The difference in the rate of graft rejections was not statistically significant (P = .23).
Conclusions: The administration of maraviroc was ineffective in preventing graft rejections in our cohort of patients.
Keywords: C-C chemokine receptor 5; HIV; antiretroviral therapy; kidney transplantation; maraviroc; rejection.
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.