- Doctor with lung cancer gets unprecedented liver, double-lung transplant from Northwestern hospital Chicago WLS-TV
- California doctor gets new lungs and liver at Northwestern after damaging treatment for advanced cancer Chicago Sun-Times
- Santa Monica doctor doing well after unprecedented liver, double-lung transplant from Northwestern Medicine in Chicago KABC-TV
- Breakthrough at Northwestern Medicine: Lung cancer patient has successful lung liver transplant AOL
- Northwestern Medicine performs double lung-liver transplant Crain’s Chicago Business
Tag Archives: transplant
Patient cured of HIV and leukemia is ‘extremely grateful’ 5 years after stem cell transplant – New York Post
- Patient cured of HIV and leukemia is ‘extremely grateful’ 5 years after stem cell transplant New York Post
- California Man Free of HIV And Cancer in Astonishing Medical Recovery ScienceAlert
- California man ‘cured’ of cancer and HIV after stem cell treatment in stunning medical recovery WION
- California man, 68, who was diagnosed with HIV and blood cancer is cured of BOTH conditions, his doctors revea Daily Mail
- Man ‘cured’ of HIV and cancer in astonishing medical recovery after ‘groundbreaking’ stem cell transpl… The Sun
Pig kidney still functioning in brain-dead man 6 weeks after transplant surgery: ‘Extremely encouraging’ – Fox News
- Pig kidney still functioning in brain-dead man 6 weeks after transplant surgery: ‘Extremely encouraging’ Fox News
- Revolutionizing Renal Care: Can an Artificial Kidney Finally Free Patients From Dialysis? SciTechDaily
- A Pig Kidney Was Just Transplanted Into a Human Body, And It Is Still Working Scientific American
- Artificial kidney is a success in pigs, what about humans? Interesting Engineering
- Implantable bioreactor study works toward a bioartificial kidney to free patients from dialysis Medical Xpress
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Head Transplant Surgeon Claims Human Brain Transplants Are ‘Technically Feasible’
ABSTRACT breaks down mind-bending scientific research, future tech, new discoveries, and major breakthroughs.
The human brain is an amazing piece of biological machinery responsible for everything from dreaming up Shakespeare’s sonnets to the muscle coordination of scoring a World Cup-winning goal. Yet, even if our brains remain spry into our old age, our bodies often don’t. What if we replaced them?
That’s the idea of controversial neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero, who claims in a recent article that it could be “technically feasible” to stave off aging by simply scooping out a person’s brain and plopping it into a younger, more agile body. The article, called “Whole brain transplantation in man: Technically feasible” was published in Surgical Neurology International (SNI), a peer-reviewed journal where Canavero serves as an editor.
If this procedure is ringing any bells, it may be because Canavero put forward a similar idea in 2015 that proposed a full head transplant. The claim was bombastic, highly controversial, and, when he later said he had found a volunteer to undergo the procedure, became international news. It became such a sensation that it was part of a Metal Gear Solid–related conspiracy theory. Many doctors disregarded the procedure as not based in current science, and it has not been completed in a live human subject to date.
Canavero told Motherboard in an email that head transplants “work,” and that his previous work was just a stepping stone to a brain transplant.
“A human head transplant was the intermediate step towards a brain transplant. Since the latter is considered impossible, I decided to focus on HT [head transplant], which is far simpler,” Canavero said. “However, although I can tell you HT works, unfortunately it does not rejuvenate aged head tissues, including the eyes. BT [Brain transplant] is the only option.”
Canavero’s claims regarding head transplants have been difficult to verify. In 2017, SNI published work by Canavero and Chinese colleague Xiaoping Ren—who is also on SNI’s editorial board—reporting a head transplant rehearsal with human cadavers. A live volunteer subject, a Russian man with a genetic degenerative muscle atrophying disease, pulled out of the planned procedure in 2019. Also in that year, SNI published work by Canavero and Ren claiming to report successful spinal cord repair in animals.
Canavero told Motherboard he’s not free “to talk about the HT project that unfolded in China, other than saying it works.”
In his latest paper—which is co-edited by himself and Ren—Canavero describes how to theoretically remove one person’s brain to place it into the skull of either a clone or a donated and brain-dead “immunoconditioned” body. In addition to describing a “robotic scoop with retractable tines” that would pluck the brains from their skulls, Canavero also provides possible solutions to several outstanding questions surrounding brain transplants, including nerve and vascular reconnection methods.
“The unavailability of technologies that can successfully rejuvenate an aged body suggests that it is time to explore other options,” the paper notes. “Contrary to common lore, a full BT is achievable, at least theoretically. Of course, further extensive cadaveric rehearsals will be necessary, followed by tests in brain-dead organ donors (as e.g., done recently in kidney xenotransplants). New surgical tools will have to be developed. With appropriate funding, a long-held dream may finally come true.”
The ultimate goal of such a procedure would be to extend the number of years a person could enjoy living in a “pristine body,” Canavero writes in his paper. This reasoning is not dissimilar to that used by CRISPR advocates who propose using the technology on embryos to snip out unwanted genetics that may lead to physical or mental disabilities—a goal which some experts have flagged as being a revival of eugenics.
Problematic or not, there is big interest in extending human life, and an entire branch of science and pseudoscience dedicated to “transhumanism” and life extension, including among Silicon Valley elite. These methods include everything from taking specific substances to “young blood” transfusions, cryogenics, and attempts to recreate humans as immortal AI. Thus far, these attempts have not included having one’s brain transplanted into a clone of themselves.
There are still major questions about whether or not what Canavero proposes would ever actually work in a living human being (especially since part of the solution hinges on developing human clones), but his claims will surely continue to capture the interest—and horror—of the public.
First man in UK to have hand transplant used it to save his wife’s life by performing CPR
The UK’s first patient to have a hand transplant has told how he went on to save his wife’s life by performing CPR after she went onto cardiac arrest.
Ten years after Mark Cahill, 61, underwent the surgery at Leeds General Infirmary, the former pub landlord has revealed how it changed his life.
‘It’s just like my own hand. I know it’s somebody else’s hand but I think of it as part of me,’ he said.
And six years after the surgery, Mr Cahill used his new hand to perform CPR on his wife Sylvia, keeping her alive for 10 minutes after a cardiac arrest before paramedics arrived.
The UK’s first patient to have a hand transplant has told how he went on to save his wife’s life by performing CPR after she went onto cardiac arrest (pictured together)
Ten years after Mark Cahill (left), 61, underwent the surgery at Leeds General Infirmary, the former pub landlord has revealed how it changed his life
He said: ‘She’s fit and well today. That was using my transplanted hand. So, it saved somebody else’s life as well, it’s been fantastic.’
Mr Cahill understands how hard it must be for families faced with a specialist nurse asking for a donation so soon after a tragic event in their lives.
‘That must be a terrible decision for them to make. You can see the hand whereas you can’t see the other organs.
‘I’m so chuffed with the families who have agreed to it. And, I’m well pleased that I got one, that somebody did that for me.’
He said: ‘It’s a sorrowful thing but they’ve given me that new hand for 10 years.’
Mr Cahill said: ‘She’s fit and well today. That was using my transplanted hand. So, it saved somebody else’s life as well, it’s been fantastic’
Pictured: Mr Cahill, who was the first person in the UK to have a hand transplant in 2012, with Surgeon Simon Kay, at Leeds General Infirmary
In sharing his experience, Mr Cahill was able to help Corinna Hutton prepare for her own double hand transplant.
Ms Hutton lost both her hands and her legs to sepsis in 2013, and was scared of the procedure after she was warned it could take ‘months’ for her to accept the new hands as her own.
‘He was able to tell me what it was really like to live with it,’ she said. ‘That’s the way I needed it to be. Careful and cautious wasn’t me.’
‘It’s changed my life incredibly. I’m so grateful. Being able to touch my son’s hair, touch his skin, feel the warmth, things like that. It blows your mind. You take this for granted so easily.’
She said the first few months after the transplant were very hard but the breakthrough came after about five months when she went to Glastonbury and was ‘back to being me’.
Mr Cahill understands how hard it must be for families faced with a specialist nurse asking for a donation so soon after a tragic event in their lives
In sharing his experience, Mr Cahill was able to help Corinna Hutton prepare for her own double hand transplant
‘Since then, it’s been a constant improvement,’ she said. ‘Even now, four years later, every week I get to do something new or something that defeated me.’
‘The minute I woke up they were mine. They were instantly mine. They looked like mine, they felt like mine, they were mine.
‘Then I had this guilt-trip straightaway, thinking somebody’s just died and given me their hands. I don’t ever want to forget that. Any time I celebrate my hands I think about how another family is coping.’
Unlike Mr Cahill, Ms Hutton has met her donor’s family.
She said: ‘They can see her and feel her and touch her with my hands. It just blows your mind, doesn’t it?’
Six years after the surgery, Mr Cahill used his new hand to perform CPR on his wife Sylvia, keeping her alive for 10 minutes after a cardiac arrest before paramedics arrived
Chris King, 63, from Rossington, near Doncaster, received a double hand transplant in 2016 after losing all his fingers apart from his thumbs in a horror work accident.
‘It’s been a weirdly wonderful journey,’ Mr King said. ‘Life’s back to a good state.’
Mr King said that, while he never really thinks of his hands coming from someone else, he regularly thinks about the donor.
‘I wonder what he was like. Was he a family lad? Did he have a daughter or a son?’ he said. ‘Was he a biker, because I love motorbikes?’
He said he agonised over writing a letter of thanks to the donor’s family, who he has not met. And, soon after the operation, he said he spent a full day crying for the person who had died and his family.
‘I was crying and thinking about the donor – what was he like? And I suppose they’ve done a lot of crying themselves.’
Mr King said it has not been an easy journey since 2016 but he would not think twice about doing it again.
He said he is amazed when he sees how fast his finger nails grow. And he said he knew he had accepted his new hands when he found himself biting his nails – something he has not done since, on doctors’ advice.
Teen denied kidney transplant because she’s not vaccinated for COVID, say parents
Appearing on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Saturday morning to discuss the dire medical dilemma their family is facing, the parents of a teenage girl who is not vaccinated against COVID-19 revealed that their daughter has been unable to move forward with the kidney transplant she needs at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina.
Chrissy Hicks, the mom of 14-year-old Yulia Hicks, recounted her exchange about the issue with a medical official.
“I said, ‘So basically you’re telling us if she does not get the vaccine, then she’s not getting a transplant,'” Chrissy Hicks said. “And [the medical employee] said, ‘Yes, that is the one thing that is holding us up.’”
DR. BEN CARSON SPEAKS OUT AGAINST NEW BIVALENT COVID VACCINE FOR YOUNG KIDS
Chrissy and Lee Hicks of North Carolina adopted their daughter Yulia from Ukraine nearly two years ago.
The couple has eight biological children and three who are adopted, the program noted.
Yulia Hicks, a 14-year-old girl, reportedly has been denied a kidney transplant by a hospital because she is unvaccinated for COVID-19.
(Fox News)
The girl suffers from a rare degenerative kidney condition known as Senior Loken Syndrome, which requires a transplant, according to reports.
Though she is not vaccinated against COVID, she has had the coronavirus — so the parents believe she’s protected by natural immunities.
Dad Lee Hicks said on Saturday morning, “We’ve been up front the entire time we’ve been seen at Duke, for the last two years, that we were not comfortable with the vaccine — with the COVID-19 vaccine. And so they knew all along that we were not comfortable with this.”
Though a 14-year-old girl is not vaccinated against COVID-19, she has had the coronavirus — so her parents in North Carolina are arguing their daughter is protected by natural immunities and should be able to move forward with a kidney transplant. The parents appeared on “Fox and Friends Weekend.”
(REUTERS/Emily Elconin)
The dad added, “And it wasn’t a requirement. It was … a recommendation, according to [the doctors] at first — until the very end.”
“They knew all along that we were not comfortable” with the COVID-19 vaccine, the parents said.
Lee Hicks said that their daughter received a “nine-hour [medical] workup” in October.
BULLIES IN WHITE COATS? ‘TOO MANY’ HEALTH CARE WORKERS EXPERIENCE TOXIC WORKPLACES, STUDIES SHOW
“And that’s when they [the doctors and hospital officials] decided or told us that this was going to be a highly recommended-slash-requirement for her to get a vaccine before she would get the transplant.”
He added, “So the phone call … That’s when [the official] said it’s not a requirement, it’s [a] recommendation, but she cannot get the transplant without the vaccine.”
Health officials “said it’s not a requirement, it’s [a] recommendation, but she cannot get the transplant without the vaccine.”
Chrissy Hicks also said on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” “We have retained a lawyer … to help us fight Duke [Hospital].”
She added, “But we don’t want Yulia’s life caught up with the litigation. We’re hoping that a medical center can step forward and say, ‘Come here, we’ll give you the transplant without the vaccination.'”
The parents of Yulia Hicks, a 14-year-old girl, appeared on “Fox and Friends Weekend” on Saturday to discuss their daughter’s case.
(Fox News)
The parents have set up a website for their daughter, they said — YuliaGrace.com.
“If there’s a medical center out there that will take [our daughter] as a patient, we would love for them to reach out to us,” Chrissy Hicks added.
The mom also said, “We have 11 children. So it’s not really financially accessible for us to go on our own out of state to [get] the surgery.”
“Hicks, who is originally from Ukraine, already had COVID and has recovered.”
Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center, it notes on its website, is ranked among the top children’s hospitals nationally in nine specialties by U.S. News & World Report; it provides care for thousands of pediatric patients every year.
BABY FORMULA SHORTAGE WILL CONTINUE TO WREAK HAVOC ON FAMILIES IN NEW YEAR: ‘I’M BEYOND STRUGGLING’
Fox News Digital reached out to the hospital system on Saturday.
Duke Health officials shared the following comment.
“Our hearts go out to all families coping with the serious illness of a loved one, and we are committed to making organ transplant accessible to as many eligible patients as possible,” the officials said.
“To protect patient privacy, we cannot comment on individual cases.”
“We have provided more than 10,000 organ transplants since 1965,” they continued. “Eligibility for organ transplant is a complex medical determination informed by many health factors to ensure the best outcomes. These determinations are made in consultation with families and medical professionals and follow the latest medical evidence and regulatory guidelines that all transplant centers must follow.”
Duke Health said further, “To protect patient privacy, we cannot comment on individual cases.”
Yulia Hicks, a 14-year-old girl, was denied a kidney transplant because she was unvaccinated for Covid-19.
(Fox News)
Alex Berenson, a former New York Times investigative reporter, shared on his Substack this past Wednesday that the 14-year-old girl was refused a kidney transplant at Duke University Hospital because she was not vaccinated for COVID-19, as Outkick reported.
Outkick noted in its article that “according to Berenson, Yulia Hicks would need to get the vaccine before the hospital would perform her surgery. Hicks, who is originally from Ukraine, already had COVID and has recovered.” Berenson spoke to the girl’s parents.
“Yes, it is strongly recommended all patients on the transplant list be fully vaccinated prior to transplantation.”
Many hospital systems around the country either recommend or require that patients on transplant lists be fully vaccinated prior to transplantation.
The University of California San Francisco health system, for instance, contains “patient education” information that shares that guidance.
“Yes, it is strongly recommended all patients on the transplant list be fully vaccinated prior to transplantation,” the site says.
Human kidneys are shown in a cross-section view. “We encourage transplant recipients to get the COVID-19 vaccine when possible,” says one hospital.
(iStock)
It adds, “Once a person is immunosuppressed at the time of transplant, response to a vaccine will be less robust than before.”
That site also says, “We strongly encourage that all eligible family and household members living with transplant recipients be vaccinated, including booster doses. Transplant recipients are likely to have a suboptimal response to the vaccine, so the best way for all close contacts to protect them is to be fully vaccinated.”
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In another example, the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, says on its website that it “understands that transplant patients — both those already transplanted and those awaiting one — have specific questions related to the COVID-19 vaccine.”
It shares the following FAQ: “Should transplant patients get vaccinated?”
Its answer: “Yes. We encourage transplant recipients to get the COVID-19 vaccine when possible.”
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Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts shares this note on its website: “Like most other transplant programs across the country, the COVID-19 vaccine is one of several vaccines and lifestyle behaviors that are required for patients awaiting solid organ transplant.”
It adds, “Transplant candidates must also receive the seasonal influenza and hepatitis B vaccines, follow other healthy behaviors, and demonstrate they can commit to taking the required medications following transplant.”
North Carolina family of unvaccinated 14-year-old search for a medical center for kidney transplant
A North Carolina family is appealing for help after their adopted 14-year-old daughter was refused a kidney transplant by Duke University hospital because she was not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Yulia Hicks was taken in by Lee and Chrissy Hicks in January 2021 from Ukraine. They knew she had a rare genetic kidney condition, Senior Loken Syndrome, which would eventually mean she required a transplant.
On November 11, however, they were told she was not eligible for Duke’s waiting list because she was not vaccinated against COVID.
‘There’s no sympathy whatsoever from any of them,’ said Chrissy Hicks.
‘It’s just strong arming us: give her the vaccine, and you’ll get the transplant.’
She said they had contacted a lawyer, but ‘can’t have her life hanging in the balance with litigation’ – and were seeking an alternative medical center.
The Hickses said Yulia had been infected previously, yet the hospital said that was not sufficient, and CDC guidelines require vaccinations for transplant patients.
‘They said the CDC recommendation had been updated at the end of October, and they had to go by the recommendation, and if she didn’t get the vaccine she wouldn’t be getting a transplant at Duke,’ said Chrissy Hicks, speaking to Tucker Carlson on Friday night.
Chrissy Hicks, mother of 14-year-old Yulia, appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show on Friday night to appeal for help
‘We’ve been dealing with these doctors from Duke for at least two years, because our dialysis goes through Duke as well,’ she explained.
‘We do it at home for Yulia.
‘But the two doctors who denied us because of the COVID vaccine, we saw them for an eight-hour workup, and that’s when they told us it was going to be required.
‘Then we kind of pushed back a little bit.
‘They put her in front of the committee on November 10th.
‘She was rejected solely because of the vaccine that’s when we decided to do a conference call and get actual evidence of them telling us this.’
Carlson called the hospital’s decision ‘obviously unreasonable and viciously cruel.’
Chrissy Hicks recorded the phone call, in which the hospital explained why Yulia was being denied the transplant.
‘I can’t require you to do anything,’ a woman says. ‘I can recommend these things.
‘But if you don’t follow our recommendations then Yulia can’t be a transplant candidate here.
‘Based on number five, which is persistent non-adherence to medical dialysis treatment or medical recommendations, and also based on number 10 – which is medical risk factors that make the surgery unsafe.
‘And being unvaccinated to the CDC recommended vaccinations, based on her age, is part of that.’
Yulia Hicks, left, is a 14-year-old rescued orphan from Ukraine. She has been denied a life-saving kidney transplant because her parents will not have her vaccinated
Yulia Hicks was adopted in January 2021 by Lee and Chrissy Hicks, joining their large family
When the Hickses, devout Roman Catholics who have 11 children – three of them adopted – argued that Yulia had already had COVID and so was protected, the hospital staff pushed back.
‘The virus has continued to mutate,’ a man tells them.
‘So the natural immunity is not as good as if you had natural immunity, plus vaccination.’
Chrissy Hicks told Carlson that the hospital staff were not sympathetic, and had not even expressed condolences at not being able to help Yulia.
When the Hickses, devout Roman Catholics who have 11 children – three of them adopted – argued that Yulia had already had COVID and so was protected, the hospital staff pushed back
The mother of 11 said they hoped that another medical center may agree to help Yulia
Carlson said it was ‘so evil, it’s hard to digest it.’
The North Carolina mother said they have retained a lawyer, but in the meantime are hoping ‘that a medical center will come forward and let us know they will perform the transplant without the vaccine.’
‘We have retained a lawyer. Mike Yoder is his name,’ she said.
‘We can’t have her life hanging in the balance with litigation.
‘So we’re hoping that going on your show will give us exposure that a medical center will come forward and let us know they will perform the transplant without the vaccine.
‘We would love for them to reach out to us.
‘We’ve created a website, yuliagrace.com, contact us there, if there’s medical center that will help us.
‘We’ve also created – we have 11 children in our family. We aren’t financially able to go out of state to do this. Go to giftsendgo.com.
‘We’ve had an outpouring of help already. We are so grateful for people who have stepped forward,’ she said.
‘This comes down to: this is bigger than Yulia, so many families in the situation as Yulia, and we want to help other families.
‘There’s been a line drawn in the sand.
‘If we don’t stand up now for our medical freedoms, we don’t won’t be able to stand up soon.’
Yulia’s case is not isolated.
Earlier this year, a 31-year-old Boston man, DJ Ferguson, was denied a heart transplant because he refused to be vaccinated against COVID.
Several weeks later a North Carolina man, Chad Carswell, 38, said he would rather die than be forced to get the COVID jab to receive the kidney transplant he needed.
Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, the hospital where Carswell was hoping to receive his transplant, declined to comment on his case but a spokeswoman said the hospital’s vaccine policy is meant to protect transplant patients, who are at high risk for severe illness from COVID.
Last year, both Cleveland Clinic and University of Colorado hospitals refused to perform organ transplants for recipients who hadn’t been vaccinated.
Individual centers establish their own policies, but there are some common practices. Hospitals will typically require transplant candidates to abstain from smoking, and transplant recipients generally have to go through psychosocial evaluations.
They often have to be vaccinated against hepatitis B, commit to getting annual flu shots, and show they’re immune to measles.
FDA clears 1st fecal transplant treatment for gut infection
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials have approved the first pharmaceutical-grade version of the so-called fecal transplant procedures that doctors have increasingly used against hard-to-treat intestinal infections.
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved Rebyota for adults who have trouble fighting off infections with Clostridium difficile, commonly referred to as C. diff, a bacteria that causes nausea, cramping and diarrhea. The infection is particularly dangerous when it reoccurs and is linked to about 15,000 to 30,000 deaths a year.
For more than a decade, some U.S. doctors have used stool samples from healthy donors to treat the condition. The healthy bacteria from donors’ gut has been shown to help recipients fight off C. diff bacteria. The procedure has grown more common as many patients no longer respond to traditional antibiotics.
But the proliferation of stool banks and fecal transplant practitioners across the country has created regulatory headaches for the FDA, which doesn’t traditionally regulate doctors’ medical procedures. The FDA has rarely intervened, provided stool donors are carefully screened for potential infectious diseases.
The new therapy from Ferring Pharmaceuticals Inc. is manufactured at a facility in Minnesota from stool donations that are screened for dozens of infections and viruses. The therapy is delivered via the rectum by health professionals as a one-time procedure.
The FDA said it approved the treatment based on results from two studies in which 70% of patients taking Rebyota saw their symptoms resolve after eight weeks, compared with 58% of patients getting a placebo.
The new treatment is only for patients who have already taken a course of antibiotics for recurrent infection. The condition is more common in seniors and people with weakened immune systems.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Blood Stem Cell Transplant Could Reboot Immune System in Multiple Sclerosis Patients
Summary: 80% of patients with multiple sclerosis remain disease-free for the long term following an autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant.
Source: University of Zurich
Every day, one person in Switzerland is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. MS is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s own immune system attacks the myelin sheath of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. The disease leads to paralysis, pain and permanent fatigue, among other symptoms.
Fortunately, there have been great advances in therapies in recent decades. A study by the Department of Neuroimmunology and MS Research at the University of Zurich (UZH) and the Department of Medical Oncology and Haematology Clinic at the University Hospital Zurich (USZ) has now pinpointed why the most effective currently available therapy – a stem cell transplant – works so well.
Wiping out unwanted immune cells
“80 percent of patients remain disease-free long-term or even forever following an autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant,” says recently retired Professor Roland Martin, study lead and last author.
The treatment is particularly suitable for younger people with aggressive forms of the disease. Four years ago, thanks to the high effectiveness of the treatment and the now low mortality rate, Martin’s department together with the USZ clinic were granted approval to administer the therapy. It is the only clinic in Switzerland approved for this treatment.
During the treatment, several chemotherapies completely destroy the patients’ immune system – including the subset of T cells which mistakenly attack their own nervous system.
The patients then receive a transplant of their own blood stem cells, which were harvested before the chemotherapy. The body uses these cells to build a completely new immune system without any autoreactive cells.
Systematic analysis of immune cells
“Previous studies have shown the basic workings of the method, but many important details and questions remained open,” says Martin. Some unclear aspects were what exactly happens after the immune cells are eliminated, whether any of them survive the chemotherapy, and whether the autoreactive cells really do not return.
In the recently published study, Martin’s team systematically investigated these questions for the first time by analyzing the immune cells of 27 MS patients who received stem cell therapy in Zurich. The analysis was done before, during and up to two years after treatment. This allowed the researchers to track how quickly the different types of immune cells regenerated
Successful reset of immune system
Surprisingly, the cells known as memory T cells, which are responsible for ensuring the body remembers pathogens and can react quickly in case of a new infection, reappeared immediately after the transplant.
Further analysis showed that these cells had not re-formed, but had survived the chemotherapy. These remnants of the original immune system nevertheless pose no risk for a return of MS: “They are pre-damaged due to the chemotherapy and therefore no longer able to trigger an autoimmune reaction,” explains Martin.
In the months and years following the transplant, the body gradually recreates the different types of immune cells. The thymus gland plays an important role in this process. This is where the T cells go to school, so to speak, and learn to distinguish foreign structures, such as viruses, from the body’s own.
“Adults have very little functioning tissue left in the thymus,” says Martin.
“But after a transplant, the organ appears to resume its function and ensures the creation of a completely new repertoire of T cells which evidently do not trigger MS or cause it to return.”
Further studies needed for wider approval
These findings have enabled the researchers to understand why stem cell transplants are usually so successful. But lamentably, says Martin, the treatment is not approved in many countries, as phase III studies are lacking.
“Phase III studies cost several hundred million euros, and pharmaceutical companies are only willing to conduct them if they will make money afterward.” This is not the case with stem cell therapy, as the drugs used are no longer patent-protected.
“I am therefore very pleased that we have succeeded in obtaining approval for the treatment from the Federal Office of Public Health and that health insurers are covering the costs,” Martin says. In the past, many MS sufferers from Switzerland had to travel to Moscow, Israel or Mexico to receive transplants.
See also
About this multiple sclerosis research news
Author: Kurt Bodenmueller
Source: University of Zurich
Contact: Kurt Bodenmueller – University of Zurich
Image: The image is in the public domain
Original Research: Open access.
“Dynamics of T cell repertoire renewal following autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in multiple sclerosis” by Roland Martin et al. Science Translational Medicine
Abstract
Dynamics of T cell repertoire renewal following autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in multiple sclerosis
Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (aHSCT) is a highly effective treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). It depletes autoreactive cells and subsequently renews adaptive immune cells.
The possible proinflammatory potential of surviving T cells early after aHSCT has not been studied.
Here, we examined the dynamics of new and surviving T cells in 27 patients after aHSCT by multidimensional flow cytometry, T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing, specificity testing, telomere length profiling, and HLA genotyping.
Early after aHSCT, naïve T cells are barely detectable, whereas effector memory (EM) T cells quickly reconstitute to pre-aHSCT values. EM CD4+ T cells early after aHSCT have shorter telomeres, have higher expression of senescence and exhaustion markers, and proliferate less than those before aHSCT.
We find a median TCR repertoire overlap of 26% between the early post-aHSCT EM CD4+ T cells and pre-aHSCT, indicating persistence of EM CD4+ T cells early after transplantation.
The EM CD4+ TCR repertoire overlap declines to 15% at 12 months after aHSCT, whereas the naïve TCR repertoire entirely renews. HLA-DR–associated EM CD4+ T cell reactivity toward MS-related antigens decreased after aHSCT, whereas reactivity toward EBV increased.
Our data show substantial survival of pre-aHSCT EM CD4+ T cells early after transplantation but complete renewal of the T cell repertoire by nascent T cells later.
Pig’s Heart Took Longer to Generate a Beat in Transplant Patient
A genetically modified pig heart transplanted into a severely ill person took longer to generate a heartbeat than those of typical pig or human hearts, research showed, another potential challenge for doctors aiming to conduct clinical trials of pig-organ transplants.
Doctors took daily electrocardiograms of
David Bennett,
a 57-year-old handyman and father of two who received a gene-edited pig heart in an experimental surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore in January. Mr. Bennett died in March from heart failure, but doctors still aren’t sure why the pig heart thickened and lost its pumping ability.
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Doctors involved in the groundbreaking surgery have been studying data from Mr. Bennett’s case, which is being closely watched in the wider transplant community. Researchers reported in May that a common pig virus was detected in the pig heart transplanted into Mr. Bennett. They said there is no evidence the virus infected Mr. Bennett, but its presence in the pig heart could have caused inflammation that contributed to the cascade of events that led to his death from heart failure.
Researchers analyzed Mr. Bennett’s EKG data as part of efforts to understand his decline after the transplant, direct future research and determine a possible path toward opening clinical trials. Widely used tests that measure electrical signals that cause the heart to beat, EKGs can help diagnose heart attacks, irregular heart rhythms and other possible abnormalities.
Researchers reported unexpected findings in two aspects of Mr. Bennett’s EKG data: the time it takes electricity to travel from the top to the bottom chamber of the heart and across the bottom chambers, which pumps blood through the heart, and the time it takes the lower chambers of the heart to go through a full electrical cycle, which is associated with a heartbeat.
The surfaces of pig cells contain a sugar molecule that triggers the human immune system to attack the organs. Scientists are using the gene editing tool Crispr to overcome this obstacle.
Here’s one approach:
…and then insert the edited DNA into a pig egg cell whose nucleus has been removed. The egg cell is then transferred to the uterus of a sow. The sow gives birth to pigs whose cells—including those in their organs— contain the edited genes.
Crispr acts like scissors cutting DNA at a specific place
scientists edit troublesome genes in pig DNA…
…and sometimes add human genes…
ORGAN OPTIONS
Researchers are trying various techniques that might allow transplantation of gene-edited pig hearts, kidneys and livers into humans. Recent studies on pig organ transplantation in baboons and people have focused mainly on hearts and kidneys.
HEART TO HEART
Pig and human hearts have similarities—but also some differences.
Pigs can be bred to have hearts of similar size as human hearts.
Pig and human hearts each have four pumping chambers—two small ones known as atria and two large ones known as ventricles.
The wall of tissue separating the ventricles is thicker in pig hearts than in human hearts.
Pig and human hearts each are attached to a large artery known as the aorta as well as to a large vein known as the vena cava.
A pig’s inferior (lower) vena cava joins a pig heart’s right atrium at an angle. The vein is longer in pigs than in humans.
EASING ORGAN REJECTION
The surfaces of pig cells contain a sugar molecule that triggers the human immune system to attack the organs. Scientists are using the gene editing tool Crispr to overcome this obstacle. Here’s one approach:
Crispr acts like scissors cutting DNA at a specific place.
Scientists edit troublesome genes in pig DNA…
…and sometimes add human genes…
…and then insert the edited DNA into a pig egg cell whose nucleus has been removed. The egg cell is then transferred to the uterus of a sow. The sow gives birth to pigs whose cells—including those in their organs—contain the edited genes.
ORGAN OPTIONS
Researchers are trying various techniques that might allow transplantation of gene-edited pig
hearts, kidneys and livers into humans. Recent studies on pig organ transplantation in baboons and people have focused mainly on hearts and kidneys.
HEART TO HEART
Pig and human hearts have similarities—but also some differences.
Pigs can be bred to have hearts of similar size as human hearts.
Pig and human hearts each have four pumping chambers—two small ones known as atria and two large ones known as ventricles.
The wall of tissue separating the ventricles is thicker in pig hearts than in human hearts.
Pig and human hearts each are attached to a large artery known as the aorta as well as to a large vein known as the vena cava.
A pig’s inferior (lower) vena cava joins a pig heart’s right atrium at an angle. The vein is longer in pigs than in humans.
EASING ORGAN REJECTION
The surfaces of pig cells contain a sugar molecule that triggers the human immune system to attack the organs. Scientists are using the gene editing tool Crispr to overcome this obstacle. Here’s one approach:
Crispr acts like scissors cutting DNA at a specific place.
Scientists edit troublesome genes in pig DNA…
…and sometimes add human genes…
…and then insert the edited DNA into a pig egg cell whose nucleus has been removed. The egg cell is then transferred to the uterus of a sow. The sow gives birth to pigs whose cells— including those in their organs—contain the edited genes.
ORGAN OPTIONS
Researchers are trying various techniques that might allow transplantation of gene-edited pig
hearts, kidneys and livers into humans. Recent studies on pig organ transplantation in baboons and people have focused mainly on hearts and kidneys.
HEART TO HEART
Pig and human hearts have similarities—but also some differences.
Pigs can be bred to have hearts of similar size as human hearts.
Pig and human hearts each have four pumping chambers—two small ones known as atria and two large ones known as ventricles.
The wall of tissue separating the ventricles is thicker in pig hearts than in human hearts.
Pig and human hearts each are attached to a large artery known as the aorta as well as to a large vein known as the vena cava.
A pig’s inferior (lower) vena cava joins a pig heart’s right atrium at an angle. The vein is longer in pigs than in humans.
The time intervals are typically shorter in pig hearts that are in pigs. But they took longer in the gene-modified pig heart inside a human. The time for the electricity to travel through the heart’s electrical system and generate a heartbeat also took longer than what is typical for human hearts, said
Timm Dickfeld,
a professor of medicine and director of electrophysiology research at the University of Maryland Medical Center, who was the leader of the EKG study.
What that might mean in the future for doctors caring for patients with gene-modified pig heart transplants is uncertain, said
Paul Wang,
director of the Stanford Cardiac Arrhythmia Service and a professor of medicine and bioengineering at Stanford University, who examined the data but wasn’t involved in the study.
“It has only been done once,” Dr. Wang said. “It needs to be done many more times for us to understand what these differences mean.”
The EKG data haven’t been published or undergone an outside vetting process. They are being presented by the Maryland team at an American Heart Association annual meeting starting Nov. 5. The Maryland team said they are studying the significance of the findings and hope to gather more data in future studies.
The fact that the electrical signals traveled through Mr. Bennett’s heart more slowly than expected “did not appear to be associated with a pathological outcome,” said
Bartley Griffith,
co-director of the cardiac xenotransplantation program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who performed Mr. Bennett’s transplant surgery.
Dr. Griffith added that if Mr. Bennett had survived longer and the time intervals became even slower, a pacemaker might eventually have become necessary.
Researchers have tried for decades to develop the transplantation of organs between different species, or xenotransplantation, to address a chronic shortage of organs. More than 3,500 people are on the waiting list in the U.S. for a heart transplant, according to a 2022 update from the American Heart Association.
Megan Sykes,
director of the Columbia Center for Translational Immunology in New York, said that although pigs are similar to humans in organ size and physiology, the EKG data illustrate that there are differences that may only emerge after doing transplants into humans.
“We have reached the point where we need human studies as well as animal studies,” Dr. Sykes said.
The Maryland team and other groups have met with the Food and Drug Administration recently to discuss how to start small clinical trials of genetically modified pig organs. The FDA has requested additional data from the Maryland team in baboons, said
Muhammad Mohiuddin,
the scientific program director of cardiac xenotransplantation at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Mohiuddin said they plan to gather additional EKG data as part of the research.
Write to Amy Dockser Marcus at amy.marcus@wsj.com
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