Immunosuppressive Drugs (1)

Immunosuppressive Drugs- Cyclosporin





Sorry for the long absence from my blog. I just shifted to my new house and had to live without broadband for almost 3 months.


OK, today I am going to talk about cyclosporin ( prototype of calcineurin inhibitor) because this drug change the landscape we look at solid organ transplantation. It was discovered in 1971 and subsequently approved for use in 1983.


I do not think you care about the history. The more important topics you want to know are popular questions in MRCP, here are the popular questions,


1) Drug Interacations

Since cyclosporin is metabolised in the liver by cytochrome P-450, there are a lot of drug that can induce/inhibit this enzyme causing low/high cyclosporing level in the blood. Fo the mneumonics of enzyme inducers/inhibitors, you can read my previous blog. Remember that grape juice inhibit the cytochrome P-450!! ( ALL-TIME POPULAR MRCP QUESTION!!)


2) Side effects


This topic is ver popular if you get a case of kidney transplant in MRCP PACES, common side effects are,

Tremor
Hypertension
Gum hypertrophy
Electrolyte imbalance
Nephrotoxicity

I will talk more about immunosuppressive drugs in my future blogs!!