This technology is a genetic marker for donor-recipient matching that could dramatically decrease risk of kidney transplant allograft rejection.
Allograft rejection occurs when an organ transplant recipient’s immune system begins to attack the donor tissue. This can lead to many detrimental side effects and, without treatment, may lead to the loss of the transplanted organ. Kidney transplants in particular carry a high risk of rejection. Current techniques to determine and mitigate the risk of rejection involve pre-surgery blood type and tissue matching, which requires an invasive kidney biopsy.
This technology presents a genetic marker that is associated with rejection in kidney transplant recipients. Through analysis of over 6000 patients, recipient-donor mismatch of the genetic locus encoding the LIMS1 antigen was determined to carry a 63% increased risk of rejection in transplants. Comparison of this region in the patient and donor genomes could thus serve as a tool for increased donor-recipient matching prior to transplantation or to identify patients at risk of rejection who have already received transplants. Furthermore, this technology describes a serological test for anti-LIMS1 antibodies, which are associated with allograft rejection risk.
This technology has been validated in human donor-recipient pairs undergoing transplantation.
IR CU18292
Licensing Contact: Jerry Kokoshka