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EBMT 2026 | The potential of using abatacept to mitigate transplant-related toxicities in hemoglobinopathies
In this video, Alexander Ngwube, MD, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, discusses the role of abatacept in mitigating transplant-related toxicities in patients with hemoglobinopathies, such as thalassemia. Dr Ngwube highlights the efficacy of abatacept in reducing the early incidence of acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and complications such as transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA). This interview took place at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the EBMT in Madrid, Spain.
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Transcript
I think I’ve worked with… I have, you know, been on studies and I’ve worked with Abatacept for almost 15 years and I can say that it does do a good job. One of the earliest studies that we did where we looked at patients coming to transplants that are getting matched unrelated donor transplants with the use of abatacept showed that it works in the early period...
I think I’ve worked with… I have, you know, been on studies and I’ve worked with Abatacept for almost 15 years and I can say that it does do a good job. One of the earliest studies that we did where we looked at patients coming to transplants that are getting matched unrelated donor transplants with the use of abatacept showed that it works in the early period. The incidences of cacute graft-versus-host disease and chronic graft-versus-host disease was markedly reduced compared to the studies that were done without Abatacept. And so, if you’re reducing whatever the immune dysregulation associated with graft-versus-host disease very early with Abatacept, it also means that you’ll also be reducing some of the complications like TMA and other complications associated with acute complications post-transplant. So I do believe that this plays a big role. I think we still need more and more studies, even though studies have shown that it works. But I think we need more acceptance of Abatacept in the transplants, even with matched-related donor transplants, matched-unrelated donor transplants and haploidentical-related transplants. I do think that it plays a huge role and I think there’s enough data to support its use. And for those that are still on the fence, go ahead and do clinical trials and show that it works. That’s my take on it.
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Disclosures
Vertex Therapeutics (paid consultant one-time, ended November 2025) and Beam Therapeutics (paid consultant one-time, ended December 2025).
