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Surgeons hope that the genetic changes will help the patient’s body to accept the organ and that the pig’s organs can help alleviate the shortage of organ donors.
A man with terminal heart disease is responding well three days after he was given a genetically modified pig heart in his first operation, his doctors reported on Monday.
Surgery by a team at the University of Maryland in the United States is one of the first to prove the viability of a pig-human heart transplant, an area made possible by new gene editing tools.
If proven successful, scientists hope that pig organs will help alleviate the shortage of organ donors.
“This was a breakthrough surgery and brings us one step closer to resolving the organ shortage crisis. There is simply not enough donor heart available to respond to the long list of potential recipients, ”said Dr. Bartley Griffith, who transplanted a pig’s heart to the patient through surgery.
“We are very careful, but we are optimistic that this first surgery in the world will give patients an important new opportunity in the future,” added Griffith.
David Bennett, a 57-year-old from Maryland, had a heart transplant as his last chance.
“Either he died or this transplant was done. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last chance,” Bennett said a day before the operation, according to a note released by the university.
To move forward with experimental surgery, the university obtained an emergency permit on the anniversary night of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s program through its compassionate use program.
“The FDA used our data and data on experimental pigs to authorize the transplant of a patient with no other end-of-heart disease who had no other treatment options,” said Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, head of the University’s xenotransplant program (transplanting animal organs into humans). .
According to Organdonor.gov, about 110,000 Americans are waiting for an organ transplant, and more than 6,000 patients die each year before receiving one.
Bennett’s genetically modified pig heart was donated by Revivicor, a Virginia-based regenerative medicine company. On the morning of the operation, the transplant team removed the pig’s heart and placed it in a special device to preserve its function until the operation.
Pigs have long been an attractive source of potential transplants because their organs are similar to humans.
Other organs of pigs being studied for transplantation into humans are the kidneys, liver and lungs.
Previous efforts on pig-human transplants have failed due to genetic differences that led to organ rejection or viruses that were at risk of infection.
Scientists have tackled this problem by editing genes that could be harmful.
In Bennett’s inserted heart, three genes previously associated with organ rejection were “excreted” in the pig donor, and six human genes associated with immunological acceptance were inserted into the pig’s genome.
The researchers also deleted a pig gene to prevent overgrowth in the pig’s heart tissue.
The work was funded in part by a $ 15.7 million research grant to evaluate Revivicor’s genetically modified pig hearts in baboon research.
In addition to the genetic changes in the pig’s heart, Bennett received an experimental drug against rejection.
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