De Novo Everolimus-based Therapy for Renal Transplantation Using Rituximab Induction

The investigators hypothesized that everolimus-based immunosuppressive therapy combined with rituximab induction could provide comparable safety profiles for renal transplant patients, as compared to standard immunosuppressive therapy using thymoglobulin induction, tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil and steroids, in terms of acute rejection rate and renal function. Rituximab was reported to reverse refractory acute kidney transplant rejection. Combined with immunoadsorption with or without IVIG, rituximab could successfully prevent antibody-mediated rejection in ABO-incompatible renal transplantation. This study is to assess whether a CNI-free regimen including B-cell depleting antibody induction, everolimus and MMF results in comparable long-term function without a negative impact on safety or efficacy of immunosuppression. This study will be open-label and two-arm randomized (2:1).