Per Med. 2016 May;13(3):257-264. doi: 10.2217/pme-2015-0008. Epub 2016 Mar 22.

Detecting rejection in cardiac transplantation: applications of genomic medicine.

Personalized medicine

Rajeev Mohan, Jon Kobashigawa

PMID: 29767606 DOI: 10.2217/pme-2015-0008

Abstract

The primary focus of care in heart transplant recipients is to prevent rejection. Checking serum levels of immunosuppressant drugs as well as performing biopsies to obtain tissue samples for histological analysis have been the mainstays of rejection surveillance. Novel applications of genomics have proven to be useful in adding a noninvasive alternative to the standard of care. In particular, the use of gene-expression profiling to detect upregulation of rejection-related genes, detection of donor-derived cell-free DNA as a marker of graft apoptosis and rejection, as well as mRNA and miRNA as intragraft and peripheral markers of rejection have come to the forefront of genomics as they relate to transplantation. This review focuses on the use of genomics in heart transplant recipients.

Keywords: AlloMap test; cardiac transplantation; cell-free DNA; gene-expression profiling; genomics; heart transplantation; miRNA; molecular mRNA; rejection

Publication Types

• Journal Article