Researchers trying to figure out what killed the first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig have discovered that the organ harbored an animal virus, but they still can’t say if it played any role in the man’s death.
Viral DNA inside the pig’s heart
Maryland Man, David Bennett Sr., of 57 years old, died in March, two months after the groundbreaking experimental transplant. Doctors at the University of Maryland said last week that they had found an unwelcome surprise: viral DNA inside the pig’s heart. They found no signs that this bug, called porcine cytomegalovirus, was causing an active infection.
But one of the main concerns of animal transplants to humans is the risk of new types of infections being introduced to people.
The first transplant of a genetically-modified pig heart into a human may have ended prematurely because of a well-known—and avoidable—risk. https://t.co/qz0wXqUle2
— MIT Technology Review (@techreview) May 8, 550
Because some viruses are “latent”, that is, they lie in wait without causing the disease , “It could be a hitchhiker,” Dr. Bartley Griffith, the surgeon who performed Bennett’s transplant, told The Associated Press.
Even so, more sophisticated tests are being developed to ” make sure we don’t miss this kind of virus,” added Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, scientific director of the university’s xenotransplantation program.
The animal virus was first reported by MIT Technology Review, citing a scientific presentation that Griffith gave to the American Society of Transplantation last month.
Heart from a genetically modified pig
For decades, doctors have tried to use animal organs it is to save human lives without success. Bennett, who was dying and unfit for a human heart transplant, underwent the latest operation using a heart from a genetically modified pig to reduce the risk that his immune system would quickly reject a foreign organ.
The Maryland team stated that the donor pig was healthy, had passed the tests required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to detect infections and had been raised in facilities designed to prevent the animals from spreading infection.
Revivicor, the company that provided the animal, declined to comment.
The pig’s heart stops working
Griffith said that his patient, although very sick, he had recovered quite well from the transplant when one morning he woke up worse, with symptoms similar to those of an infection. The doctors Numerous tests were run to try to understand the cause, and Bennett was given a series of antibiotics, antiviral drugs and immune-boosting treatment. But the pig’s heart swelled, filled with fluid and eventually stopped working.
“What, if anything, was the virus doing that could have caused the swelling? Give Your Heart?” Griffith asked. “Honestly, we don’t know.”
The reaction also didn’t appear to be typical organ rejection, he said, noting that the investigation is still ongoing.
In the meantime Doctors at other medical centers around the country have been experimenting with animal organs in donated human bodies and are eager to try formal studies in living patients soon. It’s unclear how the pig virus will affect those plans.
Read more:
Pelosi affirms that the Supreme Court “hit women in the face” after the publication of the draft that would prohibit the right to abortion
The bold theory of an “anti-universe” where the time runs backwards and how it solves various enigmas of the cosmos
2022 The famous French serial killer: “The Queen of Poisoners”