New immunosuppressive agents for pediatric transplantation

Pediatric transplantation has always been challenging for transplant surgeons. Although the higher immunoreactivity and the faster metabolism showed by this unique population when compared with adults requires a heavy immunosuppressive regimen, the possibility of disrupting the delicate balance of correct psychophysical development calls for a regimen of more selective and less toxic immunosuppressive drugs. In the past decade several new drugs have been investigated and some of them appear to be very promising, although pleiotropic toxicities have not yet been eliminated. An appropriate pharmacokinetic approach and the evaluation of synergistic multi-drug combinations by rigorous mathematical models would lead to highly selective immunosuppressive regimens which may result in virtually no toxicity.