Cyclosporine therapy

Question 1

Cyclosporine mechanism of action

Answer 1

Inhibits calcineruin within T cells

• inhibits produciton of cytokines
• most notably is IL-2*

Question 2

Role of IL-2

Answer 2

Activation and proliferation of T cells

- with IL-2 receptor stimulation: feed forward mechanism, increased proliferation in both Th1 and Th2

Question 3

Cyclosporine side effects

Answer 3

Vomiting, diarrhea, secondary infections, anorexia, lethargy, gingival hyperplasia

Question 4

Monitoring options with cyclosporine

Answer 4

• therapeutic drug monitoring: measurement of cyclosporine blood concentrations
• pharmacodynamics: measuring the biological effects of the drug on the target cell
• used to help decide if a patient is being treated appropriately as well as if they might be at risk for secondary infecitons

Question 5

Immune monitoring

Answer 5

• measuring functional and molecular markers of immune reactivity to provide clinically useful information
• done thru identification of relevant biomarkers
• many markers explored and used in human and vet med

Question 6

Flow cytometry

Answer 6

Used initially

- use of antibodies to recognize extracellular and intracellular targets

Question 7

PCR

Answer 7

Polymerase chain reaction

• looking at target sequences of nuclear material
• quantitative: quantitate the amount of target DNA