Xenografts on the way
Mass organ transplantation from GM pigs to humans will begin in 2022
Stepan Ikaev, Hi-tech+
The American biotech company United Therapeutics has announced its readiness to start mass transplantation of human patients with donated organs from genetically modified pigs within one to two years. The necessary clinical trials to obtain permission from the FDA have already begun. According to Futurism, in the long term, United Therapeutics expects to receive an "unlimited number of organs" for transplantation.
"We are already on the threshold. We hope to start working with people in the next year or two. We also already have a pig, whose organs we will transfer to people in 2021 or 2022. Our ultimate goal is to get an unlimited number of organs," said David Ayares, chief scientist at Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics.
Drawing from the website revivicor.com – VM.
United Therapeutics and Revivicor have been trying to control the human immune response after xenotransplantation for more than 18 years. The latter involves the transplantation of vital organs and tissues from one species to another. In 2003, Revivicor scientists managed to disable a gene in pigs that produces a carbohydrate known as alpha-gal. Previously, it was this gene that caused rejection by the human immune system and interfered with transplantation. However, United Therapeutics and Revivicor could not limit themselves to one gene – the pigs and humans had too many differences, the company said.
Last year, United Therapeutics managed to bring genetically modified pigs to a suitable level – the company's experimental animals now live with 10 genomic modifications. These pigs have four disabled genes and six added human genes. Revivicor believes that numerous changes have made pig organs comparable to human donor organs.
United Therapeutics and Revivicor will start with kidney transplantation from pig to human, and then move on to heart transplantation.
It is important to note that Revivicor is not the only company that seeks to transplant pig organs to humans. Boston-based eGenesis and its Chinese partner Qihan Biotech use gene editing tools to modify pigs for the same purpose and have already raised thousands of edited pigs with multiple genomic changes. But they have not yet announced clear deadlines for the transfer of their technologies into clinical practice.
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