By Lauran Neergaard
Washington (AP) – A woman from Alabama who lived with a pig kidney for 130 days had been removed from the organ after her body began rejecting it and is back on dialysis, the doctors announced on Friday – a disappointment in the continuous quest for animal transplants to human.
Towana Looney recovers well from the return surgery of April 4 in Nyu Langone Health and returned home to Gaddden, Alabama. In a statement, she thanked her doctors for “the opportunity to be part of this incredible research”.
“Although the result is not what someone wanted, I know that many have been learned from my 130 days with a pork kidney – and that it can help and inspire many others on their trip to overcome kidney disease,” added Looney.
Scientists genetically modify pigs, so that their organs are more human to cope with a serious shortage of transplantable human organs. More than 100,000 people are on the list of American clerks, most of them who need a kidney and thousands of people die pending.
Before the transplant of Looney, only four other Americans had received experimental xenotransplants of pig organs published in genes – two hearts and two kidneys which last more than two months. These beneficiaries, who were seriously ill before the operation, died.
Now researchers are trying these transplants in slightly less sick patients, such as Looney. A man from the New Hampshire who received a pig kidney in January continues well and a rigorous study of pork kidney transplants should start this summer. Chinese researchers have also recently announced a successful renal xenotransplantation.
Looney has been in dialysis since 2016 and was not qualified for a regular transplant – her body was abnormally prepared to reject a human kidney. So she looked for a pig kidney and that worked well – she called herself “superwoman” and lived any longer than anyone with a pork organ published by the gene, from her transplant from November 25 to early April, when her body began to reject it.
The pioneer of the Nyu Xenotransplant, Dr. Robert Montgomery, the Looney surgeon, said what triggered this rejection studied. But he said that Looney and his doctors agreed that it would be less risky to remove the pork kidney than trying to save it with higher and risky doses of anti-rejection drugs.
“We did the safe thing,” Montgomery told the Associated Press. “It is not worse than it was before (the Xenotransplant) and she would tell you that she is better because she had this 4 and a half month break in dialysis.”
Shortly before the start of the rejection, Looney had undergone an infection linked to her previous time on dialysis and her anti-rejection drugs were slightly lowered, said Montgomery. At the same time, its immune system reactivated after the transplant. These factors may have combined to damage the new kidney, he said.
Rejection is a common threat after transplants of human organs also, and sometimes costs patients their new organ. Doctors are faced with a balance of patient immune systems just enough to preserve the new organ while allowing them to fight infection.
It is an even greater challenge with xenotransplantation. Although these pork organs have been modified to help prevent immediate rejection, patients always need immune -removing drugs. What drugs are the best to prevent different and subsequent forms of rejection is not clear, said Dr Tatsuo Kawai from Massachusetts General Hospital, another pioneer of Xenotransplant. Different research groups use different combinations, he said.
“When we have more experience, we will know what type of immunosuppression is really necessary for xenotransplantation,” said Kawai
Montgomery said Looney’s experience offers valuable lessons for the next clinical trial.
Make xenotransplantation that ultimately works “will be won with simple and doubles, not swinging for the fence each time we make one,” he said.
The Department of Health and Sciences of the Associated Press receives the support of the scientific and educational group of the media from the medical institute Howard Hughes and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
