Happy Nice Mall

Traces of a virus known to infect pigs were found in a 57-year-old Maryland man who survived two months after a heart transplant from a genetically modified pig, according to the surgeon who performed the procedure, the first of its kind.

The statement highlights one of the most pressing objections to animal-to-human transplants; this is that widespread use of modified animal organs may facilitate the introduction of new pathogens into the human population.

Surgeon, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Dr. Bartley Griffith said that finding the DNA of the virus in the patient may have contributed to its sudden deterioration a month after the transplant.

However, Dr. Griffith added that there is no evidence that the patient has developed an active infection with the virus or that his body is rejecting the heart.

The patient, David Bennett Sr., was extremely ill prior to surgery and experienced numerous other complications after the transplant. He died on March 8th.

Dr. Griffith’s statements about the viral traces found in the patient at an American Transplantation Society meeting last month, Originally reported by MIT Technology Review.

In an interview with The New York Times on Thursday, Dr. Griffith and colleague Dr. Griffith, scientific director of the cardiac xenotransplantation program at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Muhammad Mohiuddin said they are sorry for the loss of Mr. Bennett. but they were not deterred from their goal of using animal organs to save human lives.

Dr. “This doesn’t really scare us about the future of this field, unless for some reason this event is interpreted as a complete failure,” Griffith said. “This is just a learning point. Knowing it’s there, we’ll probably be able to avoid it in the future.”

The pig, whose organs have been genetically engineered to not trigger rejection by the human immune system, was supplied by Revivicor, a regenerative medicine company based in Blacksburg, Va.

Company officials declined to comment on Thursday, and Food and Drug Administration officials, who gave transplant surgeons immediate authorization for the operation on New Year’s Eve, said they were unable to immediately answer questions.

University officials said that despite the pig being screened several times for the virus, the tests only detected active infections, not latent ones where the virus could be quietly hiding in the pig’s body. (The tests were done on nasal glands, but the virus was later detected in the pig’s spleen.)

Dr. Griffith said the latent virus may have been “hitchhiked” to the patient in the transplanted heart.

Mr. Bennett’s transplant was initially considered successful. It showed no signs of organ rejection, and the pig’s heart continued to work for more than a month, past a critical milestone for transplant patients.

A test first showed the presence of porcine cytomegalovirus DNA in Mr. Bennett 20 days after transplant, but at such a low level that Dr. Griffith said he thought it might have been a lab error.

However, Dr. About 40 days after surgery, Griffith said Mr Bennett suddenly became acutely ill and subsequent tests showed a spike in viral DNA levels.

“So we started to think that the virus, which started out as a glimmer very early on Day 20, started to grow over time, and it could have been the actor – the actor – who started all this,” said Dr. Griffith told other transplant scientists at the meeting.

On Day 45, Mr. Bennett’s health suddenly deteriorated.

Doctors treated Mr. Bennett with intravenous immune globulin (IVIG), a product made of antiviral drugs and antibodies, but the new heart filled with fluid, doubled and stopped working, and was eventually put into a heart-lung machine.

The heart transplant was one of several breakthrough transplants in recent months that has given hope to tens of thousands of patients who need new kidneys, hearts and lungs in a severe shortage of donated human organs.

In October, surgeons in New York successfully attached a kidney grown in a genetically modified pig to a brain-dead patient and found that the organ was functioning normally and producing urine.

In January, surgeons at the University of Alabama at Birmingham reported that they transplanted a kidney from a genetically modified pig into the stomach of a 57-year-old brain-dead man.

But the possibility of unpredictable consequences – and in particular the potential introduction of animal pathogens into the human population – could dampen enthusiasm for the use of genetically modified organs.

The coronavirus that started the global Covid pandemic is believed by many scientists to originate from a virus that was transmitted to humans in China from an unidentified animal.

Porcine cytomegalovirus has not been a major concern as it is a herpes virus that tends to be species-specific, said Dr. Jay Fishman.

Dr. “They will only reproduce in the host they are associated with,” Fishman said.

However, the virus can infect the transplanted animal organ, leading to a series of systemic effects that are ultimately detrimental to the patient.

“Did this contribute to the patient’s death? The answer is frankly, we don’t know, but it may have contributed to her poor general condition,” said Dr. Fishman.

A transplant surgeon who is director of the Mismatched Kidney Transplant Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Jayme Locke said that genetically modified pigs whose organs will be used for transplantation should be raised in a pathogen-free facility and cut from their mothers. within 48 hours of birth to prevent transmission of porcine cytomegalovirus during lactation.

The university has such a facility, and Dr. Locke said he plans to begin a small Phase 1 clinical trial in which he will transplant kidneys from genetically modified pigs into people with end-stage kidney disease.

Animals will need to be screened more sensitively for the virus, he added.

“From my perspective, it doesn’t slow down what we need to do, but further highlighting the data that shows our herd is free of this virus will be critical to regulatory clearances moving forward,” he said.