ASN's Mission

To create a world without kidney diseases, the ASN Alliance for Kidney Health elevates care by educating and informing, driving breakthroughs and innovation, and advocating for policies that create transformative changes in kidney medicine throughout the world.

learn more

Contact ASN

1401 H St, NW, Ste 900, Washington, DC 20005

email@asn-online.org

202-640-4660

The Latest on X

Kidney Week

Please note that you are viewing an archived section from 2020 and some content may be unavailable. To unlock all content for 2020, please visit the archives.

Abstract: PO2440

Direct Acting Antiviral Prophylaxis to Prevent Virus Transmission from Hepatitis C Viremic Donors to Hepatitis C-Negative Kidney Transplant Recipients

Session Information

Category: Transplantation

  • 1902 Transplantation: Clinical

Authors

  • Yakubu, Idris, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, Virginia, United States
  • Sterling, Richard, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, Virginia, United States
  • Levy, Marlon F., Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, Virginia, United States
  • Bhati, Chandra S., Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, Virginia, United States
  • Kumar, Dhiren, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, Virginia, United States
  • Moinuddin, Irfan Ahmed, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, Virginia, United States
  • Kamal, Layla, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, Virginia, United States
  • King, Anne L., Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, Virginia, United States
  • Sharma, Amit, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, Virginia, United States
  • Cotterell, Adrian, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, Virginia, United States
  • Gupta, Gaurav, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, Virginia, United States
Background

Studies have described a 12-week course of direct-acting anti-viral drugs (DAA) for HCV transmission from infected donors to negative kidney transplant recipients. This strategy is limited by high cost and access to DAA. A prophylactic strategy may be safer and cost-effective. We recently reported the results of our experience where a 2-4 day peri-operative DAA prophylaxis using sofosbuvir/velpatasvir (SOF/VEL) for D+/R- transplants prevented HCV transmission in a majority (88%) of cases. We report our entire experience based upon an adaptive iterative trial design where prophylaxis with SOF/VEL was initially extended to 7 days, and ezetimibe was added for a second cohort.

Methods

Wait listed patients were eligible if they met the following: (absence of living donor; panel reactive antibody≤50%; ≤1 prior transplant; absence of liver disease). The primary outcome was HCV transmission, defined as 2 consecutive positive HCV nucleic acid tests tested at Day 7 and 14-21 post-transplant. Confirmed HCV viremia triggered a12-week course of DAA.

Results

100 patients (mean age=56 years) received D+/R- transplants from November 2017 to April 2020. Mean wait time to transplant from enrollment was 34 days and the mean KDPI was 67%. At a median follow-up of 10 months (IQR: 1-30months), graft survival was 99% and patient survival was 98% with no cases of liver dysfunction. In Group 1, 10 patients received one dose SOF/VEL immediately pre-transplant and a second dose on post-transplant Day 1. Viral transmission was 30% [3/10]. In Group 2, 42 patients received two additional doses of SOF/VEL on Days 2 and 3 post-transplant. Viral transmission rate dropped down to 9.5% (4/42). All patients then achieved SVR with full DAA therapy in groups 1 and 2. In Group 3 (N=28), prophylaxis was extended to 7 days with further reduction in transmission to 3.5% (1/28). In group 4, 19 patients received ezetimibe and SOF/VEL for 7 days. Viral transmission was 5% (1/19).

Conclusion

A 7-day DAA prophylaxis is effective in preventing donor-derived HCV transmission, can result in significant cost-savings and increase access to transplants. Adding ezetimibe to SOF/VEL did not provide an additional benefit in preventing viral transmission.