Unknown Manufacturer • For prophylaxis of organ rejection. It is also used concomitantly with basiliximumab for induction therapy, mycophenolate, and corticosteriods in kidney transplant recepients that are seropositive for the Epstein-Barr virus.
Belatacept is a selective T-cell costimulation blocker used in the prophylaxis of organ rejection in adult patients receiving a kidney transplant.
Belatacept is a fusion protein in which the Fc portion of human IgG1 is attached onto the extracellular portion of human CTLA-4 (CD152). Belatacept specifically binds to CD80 and CD86 receptors that are found on the antigen-presenting cell (B cells, macrophages, dendritic cells) to block selective T-cell lymphocyte costimulation. CD80 and CD86 would normally act as the ligands to the CD28 receptor T-cells in which this interaction triggers the activation of T lymphocytes. However in the presence of belatacept, because the extracellular CTLA-4 component binds to CD28 with higher affinity than CD80 or CD86, T lymphyocyte anergy, a state of antigen specific tolerance, occurs instead. The T cell is also no longer able to respond to their antigen.