Belatacept: a new weapon in anti-rejection battlefield

As a co-stimulatory blocker against CD28 receptor, belatacept has been approved and applied to the treatment of rejection in organ transplantation in Europe and America. Belatacept has been proven to outperform calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) in improving the long-term survival rate of recipients and grafts, and enhancing graft function. Nevertheless, it might cause a high incidence of rejection. To resolve this issue, transplant workers have attempted to optimize belatacept immunosuppressive regimen and achieved good clinical efficacy. Although belatacept has been proven to exert poor effect on memory T cells, it has potential value in exploring new co-stimulatory molecular targets to optimize immunosuppressive regimes due to its specificity for immune cells and mild adverse effects. In this article, the advent of co-stimulatory blocker, clinical efficacy and application of belatacept, and the causes of belatacept-resistant rejection were reviewed.