Came across a new study out this evening that discusses how a drug used in the treatment of AIDS may be useful for reducing how often graft versus host disease (GVHD) occurs in patients who receive allogeneic stem cell transplants.
The drug is called Selzentry and its generic name is maraviroc. An article in Forbes gives a good non-technical overview of the results of the study and why its important:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2012/07/11/immune-reversal-unsuccessful-pfizer-aids-drug-might-help-transplant-patients/
The article describes how Selzentry, a "drug that failed to thrive as a treatment for HIV may now present a great hope for a deadly consequence of the bone marrow transplants used to treat blood cancers such as leukemia, myeloma, and lymphoma, according to a small study of 38 patients."
The study results are being published in the New England Journal of Medicine; here's a link to the abstract: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1201248
In the study, Selzentry kept how often GVHD occurred to about half of what it normally is in patients who receive an allo (donor) stem cell transplant.
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