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The success of daratumumab in several clinical trials has led to an extension of its licensing indication, for the treatment of relapsed and refractory Multiple Myeloma patients across the US and EU. Therefore, understanding the precise mechanism of action is of increasing importance. In a recent short communication, Harold C. Sullivan from The Center for Diffusion Medicine and Cellular Therapies, Department of Pathology and Laboratory of Medicine, Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, USA and colleagues, reported that daratumumab treatment leads to the down-regulation of CD38 on red blood cells (RBCs). The study was published in April 2017 in Blood.
In conclusion, daratumumab appears to remove CD38 from the surface of RBCs without inducing hemolysis, and this removal prevents further engagement of daratumumab by RBCs. This seems to protect RBCs from continual removal during daratumumab treatment, and the effect is reversed following treatment withdrawal.
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