Genetically modified pig kidney transplanted into patient, medical breakthrough – Irish Times

Surgeons in Boston have transplanted a genetically modified pig kidney into a sick 62-year-old man in the first surgery of its kind.

If successful, this breakthrough could offer hope to hundreds of thousands of people with kidney damage. So far, the signs are promising.

The kidneys remove waste products and excess water from the blood. Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital say the patient's new kidney began producing urine shortly after the surgery last weekend and his condition continues to improve. He is already walking the hallways of the hospital and could be discharged soon.

The patient was a black man, and the procedure may have special implications for black patients, who have higher rates of end-stage kidney disease.

The new kidney source “could solve a difficult problem in the field where minority patients are unable to receive kidney transplants,” said Dr. Winfred Williams, associate chief of nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and patients' kidneys. 's attending physician.

If kidneys from genetically modified animals can be transplanted on a large scale, dialysis “will become obsolete,” said Dr. Leonardo V. Riera, medical director of kidney transplantation at Massachusetts General Hospital. Mass General Brigham, the hospital's parent organization, developed the transplant program.

Boston transplant patient Richard “Rick” Suleiman had long suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure and had been treated at Massachusetts General for more than a decade.

After his kidneys failed, Suleiman underwent dialysis for seven years and finally received a human kidney transplant in 2018. But within five years, her donated organs began to fail and she developed other complications, including congestive heart failure, Williams said.

More than 800,000 Americans have kidney failure and require dialysis to filter toxins from the blood. More than 100,000 people are waiting to receive a kidney transplant from a living or dead human donor. End-stage kidney disease occurs three times more often in black Americans than in whites.

Additionally, tens of millions of Americans have chronic kidney disease, which can lead to organ failure.

Dialysis keeps people alive, but the most standard treatment is organ transplantation. However, thousands of patients die each year while waiting for a donated kidney due to a severe organ shortage. Only 25,000 kidney transplants are performed each year.

Xenotransplantation (transplanting animal organs into humans) has been proposed for decades as a potential solution to making kidneys more widely available. However, experts say that long-term rejection can occur even if the donor is well matched, as the human immune system rejects foreign tissue, leading to life-threatening complications.

In recent years, scientific advances such as gene editing and cloning have brought xenotransplantation closer to reality, making it possible to modify an animal's genes to make its organs more compatible and less likely to be rejected by the immune system.

The kidneys were taken from pigs that were genetically engineered by biotech company eGenesis to remove three genes involved in the organ's potential rejection. Additionally, he had seven human genes inserted to increase human fitness. Pigs carry retroviruses that can infect humans, and the company has also inactivated the pathogen.

When Suleiman resumed dialysis in 2023, he experienced severe vascular complications (his blood vessels clotted and malfunctioned) and required repeated hospitalizations, Williams said.

Suleiman, who continued to work despite his health problems, faced a long wait for another human kidney, and “he became depressed,” Dr. Williams said. “He said, 'We can't go on like this.' This cannot continue. We started thinking about special measures we could take. ”

“He would have had to wait five to six years to get a human kidney. He would not have survived,” Dr. Williams added.

When Dr. Williams asked Suleiman about a pig kidney transplant, Suleiman had many doubts, but ultimately decided to proceed.

“I saw it as a way not only to help me, but also to give hope to the thousands of people who need transplants to survive,” in a statement provided by Mass General. he said.

In September 2021, surgeons at NYU Langone Health in New York attached a genetically modified pig kidney to a brain-dead man and watched the kidney begin to function and produce urine. Shortly after, scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham announced that they had performed a similar procedure with similar results.

Surgeons at the University of Maryland have twice transplanted genetically modified pig hearts into heart patients. Although the organs functioned and the first organ showed no signs of rejection, two patients with advanced disease died shortly thereafter.

This article was first published new york times.

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