Dosing Strategies for de Novo Once-daily Extended Release Tacrolimus (LCPT) in Kidney Transplant Recipients

Outcomes after kidney transplantation have been significantly enhanced with the advances made in immunosuppressive therapies. Tacrolimus is currently marketed as an extended-release once-daily formulation dosing option for patients, decreasing pill burden and possibly decreasing adverse effects. Some transplant recipients have been shown to have higher dosage requirements. According to the literature, this can be linked to genetic disparities in the metabolism of tacrolimus.. This potential complication, where differences on specific genes alters metabolism of tacrolimus, can increase difficulty in getting to a therapeutic drug level for immunosuppresants and is one large factor that contributes to the fact that kidney transplant survival rates differ between patients. Due to the enhanced bioavailability of Meltdose formulation once-daily extended-release tacrolimus, its de novo use in recent research and practice has been shown to expedite achievement of target tacrolimus trough concentrations. De novo use of once-daily tacrolimus formulations is understudied. Through a prospective investigational study, we aim to determine the optimal strategy for de novo dosing of once-daily extended release tacrolimus (MeltDose formulation) for kidney transplant recipients at Temple University Hospital.