‘Now I have hope’: the incredible survival of the world’s first pig heart transplant

A xenotransplantation It involves the transplantation of cells, tissues or organs from one species to another. Ideally, it is carried out between similar species to avoid rejection, such as from pigs to humans.

In September, a historic medical event took place for the second time: a pig heart was successfully transplanted into a human patient in the United States. Lawrence Faucette, a 58-year-old man, who had no chance of surviving, because he suffered from terminal heart disease.

Now, a month later, the patient is feeling well, with no signs of infection or organ rejection, doctors say. “His heart function is excellent,” Dr. Bartley Griffith director of the Heart and Lung Transplant Program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who performed the operation.

Faucette’s new heart works on its own, without the help of drugs. “We are removing all medications that were initially supporting his heart,” said Dr. Mohammed Mohiuddin , professor of surgery and co-director of the Cardiac Xenotransplantation Program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, in an update shared Friday by the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). The goal now is for the patient to have the strength to perform routine functions.

When Faucette entered the hospital, “Frankly, he never expected to be able to get back on his feet” Griffith said. The patient was not eligible for a traditional transplant of the human heart due to the high complications it presented.

“The only real hope I have left is to go for the pig heart, xenotransplantation,” Faucette said in an interview from his hospital room days before his surgery, UMMC reported. “At least I now have hope and a chance.”

As the patient faced certain death, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA for its acronym in English) obtained “compassionate use” authorization to the doctors of University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMMC) for the procedure on September 15.

The FDA describes “compassionate use” as “a potential pathway for a patient with a serious or immediately life-threatening disease or condition to have access to an experimental medical product (drug, biological or medical device) for treatment outside clinical trials when there are no comparable or satisfactory therapeutic alternatives.

The pig’s heart gave Faucette another chance, and although he is not yet independent, he can get out of bed with minimal assistance. Doctors say they are at a “turning point” and will continue to closely monitor Faucette’s progress.

“We are working very hard with our physiotherapy team, who are dedicating a lot of time to helping him regain the strength he lost during the last month of his hospital stay,” Mohiuddin said in the release.

The hope is that this so far successful surgery will pave the way for clinical trials, The surgeon said they are needed before the FDA can approve xenotransplants for use in the general population of patients in need of organs.

Previouslythe Maryland team had already done the first heart transplant in a pig genetically modified another man . It involved a 57-year-old man who had no chance of surviving without a heart, as he suffered from terminal heart disease.

The man did not reject the organ, however. After two months he died. Doctors investigated the incident and realized that the heart the patient received carried a porcine virus (porcine cytomegalovirus, PCMV), and they believe this could have contributed to his death. Although the heart transplant recipient died, the operation was a great achievement, which allowed him to start again.

“The extensive investigation following Mr. Bennett’s death demonstrated that the pig heart functioned well in the patient for several weeks without any signs of acute rejection.” Griffith told Fox News Digital by email.

The procedure itself is similar to a traditional human heart transplant, but with genetic adjustments due to anatomical differences. Pigs are considered the most ideal organ donors for humans because of their organ size, physiological metabolism and immune system, Griffith explained.

A successful human xenotransplantation had already been carried out at the end of 2021. With the authorization of the institutional ethics committees, the surgeons transferred pig kidneys genetically modified two people who were legally dead because they had no discernible brain function and were on ventilators. With encouraging results, the kidneys functioned normally during the 54-hour test and appeared to produce urine.

Without counting these exceptional cases, There have yet to be any formal trials of human xenotransplantation, and doctors stress the need for clinical trials to advance research. and thus, ultimately, reduce the eternal waiting lists of people who need a donor.

In Chile, waiting lists have lengthened due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With AUGE/GES pathologies the situation is delicate. According to the report transmitted by the Ministry of Health to Congress, as of December 31, 2019, the number of postponed treatments was 7,944. As of March 31, 2022, the delayed GHG guarantees amount to 62,848, i.e. In just over two years, there has been an increase of 691% (54,904).

Furthermore, the average delay reached five months in May this year. If at the end of 2019 there were 130 services with an average delay of more than a year, in May there were 8,528. In the United States, the situation is even more serious and more than 100,000 people are waiting for a transplant. organ.

Regarding organ transplantation from pigs, researchers have already made successful progress in non-human primates, such as baboons. But these experiments do not constitute sufficient proof to guarantee the safety of human xenotransplantation.

Additionally, some people are concerned about transmission of the swine virus to recipient patients or even close contacts.

A number of fundamental questions still need to be answered before the technology can be widely used, as well as determining the right combination of selection and genetic tinkering needed to ensure recipients’ bodies don’t reject them.