Immunosuppressive drug facts for kids

Immunosuppressive drugs, also known as immunosuppressive agents, immunosuppressants and antirejection medications, are drugs that inhibit or prevent the activity of the immune system.

Therapy

Immunosuppressive drugs are used in immunosuppressive therapy to:

• Prevent the rejection of transplanted organs and tissues (e.g., bone marrow, heart, kidney, liver)
• Treat autoimmune diseases or diseases that are most likely of autoimmune origin (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, vitiligo, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis, scleroderma, sarcoidosis, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, Crohn's disease, Behcet's Disease, pemphigus, ankylosing spondylitis, and ulcerative colitis).
• Treat some other non-autoimmune inflammatory diseases (e.g., long term allergic asthma control).

Side effects

A common side-effect of many immunosuppressive drugs is immunodeficiency, because the majority of them act non-selectively, resulting in increased susceptibility to infections, decreased cancer immunosurveillance and decreased ability to produce antibodies after vaccination. However, the vaccination status of patients taking immunosuppressive drugs for chronic diseases such as Rheumatoid arthritis or Inflammatory bowel disease should be investigated before starting any treatment, and patients should eventually be vaccinated against Vaccine-preventable disease. Some studies showed a low vaccination rate against some Vaccine-preventable disease among patients taking immunosuppressive drugs, despite a generally positive attitude towards vaccinations.

There are also other side-effects, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia, peptic ulcers, lipodystrophy, moon face, liver injury and kidney injury. The immunosuppressive drugs also interact with other medicines and affect their metabolism and action. Actual or suspected immunosuppressive agents can be evaluated in terms of their effects on lymphocyte subpopulations in tissues using immunohistochemistry.

See also

• Immunosuppression
• Behcet's Disease
• Discovery and development of mTOR inhibitors
• Treatment methods for preventing organ rejection