An Alabama woman is recovering well after receiving a pig kidney transplant last month that freed her from eight years of dialysis, the latest attempt to save human lives with animal organs.
Towana Looney is the fifth American to receive a genetically modified pig organ — and notably, she’s not as sick as previous recipients who died within two months of receiving a pig kidney or heart.
“It’s like a new beginning,” Looney, 53, told The Associated Press. Immediately, “the energy I had was amazing. To have a functioning kidney – and to feel it – is incredible.”
Looney’s surgery marks an important step as scientists prepare for formal xenotransplantation studies expected to begin next year, said Dr. Robert Montgomery of NYU Langone Health, who led the highly experimental procedure.
Looney is recovering well from her transplant, which was announced Tuesday.
She was released from hospital just 11 days after the operation to continue her recovery in a nearby apartment, although she was temporarily readmitted this week while her medication is adjusted.
Doctors expect her to return home to Alabama in three months. If the pig’s kidney failed, she could start dialysis again.
“To see hope restored to her and her family is remarkable,” said Dr. Jayme Locke, Looney’s original surgeon, who secured Food and Drug Administration clearance for the Nov. 25 transplant.
More than 100,000 people are on the transplant list in the US, most of whom need a kidney. Thousands die waiting and many more who need a transplant never qualify.
Now, looking for an alternative supply, scientists are genetically altering pigs so that their organs are more human-like.
Looney donated a kidney to her mother in 1999.
Later a complication during pregnancy caused high blood pressure that damaged her remaining kidney, which eventually failed. It is extremely rare for living donors to develop kidney failure, although those who do are given extra priority on the transplant list.
But Looney couldn’t get a match—she had developed antibodies abnormally primed to attack another human kidney. Tests showed she would reject any kidney donor offered.
Then Looney heard about pig kidney research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and told Locke, then a UAB transplant surgeon, that she would like to try one.
In April 2023, Locke filed an FDA application requesting an emergency trial, under the rules for people like Looney who are out of options.
The FDA did not immediately agree.
Instead, the world’s first genetically modified pig kidney transplants went to two of the sickest patients last spring, at Massachusetts General Hospital and NYU. Both also had serious heart conditions.
The Boston patient recovered enough to spend about a month at home before dying of sudden cardiac arrest, which was thought to be unrelated to the pig kidney.
The NYU patient had heart complications that damaged her porcine kidney, forcing its removal, and she later died.
Those disappointing results did not discourage Looney, who had begun to feel worse on dialysis but, Locke said, had not developed heart disease or other complications.
The FDA eventually allowed her transplant at NYU, where Locke collaborated with Montgomery.
Even if her new organ fails, doctors can learn from it, Looney told the AP: “You don’t know if it’s going to work or not until you try.”
Blacksburg, Virginia-based Revivicor provided Looney’s new kidney from a pig with 10 gene changes.
Moments after Montgomery sewed it back in place, the kidney turned a healthy pink and began producing urine.
Looney was initially discharged on Dec. 6, wearing monitors to track his blood pressure, heart rate and other bodily functions, and returned to the hospital for daily checkups before being reinstated on medication.
Doctors review her blood work and other tests, comparing them to previous research in animals and some humans in hopes of seeing an early warning if problems arise.
“A lot of what we’re seeing, we’re seeing for the first time,” Montgomery said.
During a visit last week with Locke, who now works for the federal government, Looney hugged her longtime doctor, saying, “Thank you for not giving up on me.”
“Never,” Locke replied.
#Alabama #woman #experimental #pig #kidney #transplant
Image Source : nypost.com