By Ryan Onjala & Ethan Kilonzi
This month, the world witnessed a glimpse of the future of medication when Richard Slayman(62) successfully recovered from a pig kidney transplant. Unfortunately, the patient did not live long enough to enjoy the medical triumph, dying two months after his" successful "surgery. News spread worldwide of this tragedy that stole the life of a United States citizen and the pride of modern technology and medical advancements. T Leaving the public with one question in mind: What went wrong?
Richard Slayman of Weymouth, Massachusetts, according to the BBC, was the first recipient of a genetically modified pig kidney transplant and died nearly two months after he underwent the procedure. In 2018, he had a human kidney transplant from a deceased donor. However, it began to fail last year, and doctors raised the idea of a pig kidney transplant. They speculated that the pig kidney would last at least two years.
Using animal organs in the human body is an old idea. It has ranged from "zest for life" chimpanzee testicle implants to replacement kidneys and hearts taken from our primate relatives. The latter often ended in death soon afterward.
Pig kidney vs. human kidney:
The new pig kidney he received had been modified by Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company eGenesis to remove "harmful pig genes and add certain human genes to improve its compatibility with humans," it said.
The use of pig kidneys increases the donor pool, allowing more people to receive a new kidney. There's a significant shortage of human kidneys available for transplant. Hence, pigs could provide a much larger pool of donor organs, reducing wait times for needy patients. That also means there would be faster availability of kidneys, saving patients in critical condition the trouble of finding a suitable replacement.
In addition, organs that are retrieved from human cadavers have already experienced the trauma of brain death, which may lead to other issues later on. These issues may build up and result in organ failure. With animal donor organs, the organs will be removed from a healthy live pig that is under anaesthesia, avoiding the problem altogether. Resulting in a healthier organ.
However, Zoonotic diseases need to be considered when it comes to these types of transplants. Pigs can harbour viruses and other pathogens that are not harmful to them but could be dangerous if transmitted to humans. Extensive testing and monitoring would be necessary to ensure the safety of pig organs before widespread use.
Moreover, pig kidneys are known for having shorter lifespans. Pig kidneys may not last as long as human kidneys in a recipient's body. This could lead to the need for repeat transplants, putting the patient through additional surgeries and recovery periods. Not to mention the cost of the procedure! The apparent reason for this short lifespan could be seen as pigs generally live shorter lives than humans, so their organs are programmed to fail after a shorter amount of time. That inevitably means they will last an even shorter time when transplanted than human kidneys, contradicting the prior belief of lasting two years.
Pig kidneys may also have shorter lifespans as a result of the stress on the organ. The process of organ removal, preservation, and transplantation can put stress on the kidney. This stress could take a greater toll on a pig kidney compared to a human kidney due to anatomical or physiological differences. The organ would be exhausted before it can begin its new life, resulting in failure after one or two years.
Ethical Problems With Xenotransplantation:
In addition to the biological barriers of Xenotransplantation, problems regarding ethical and moral topics come into question when researching the possibilities for the future. Transplantation, in general, has a public risk associated with administering immunosuppressant drugs (drugs that inhibit or prevent the activity of the immune system). These drugs are known to lower the patient's ability to fight off infections, increasing the risk of contamination. For the patient, the risks involved need to be weighed by their own physician; however, public concerns are also involved. The new genetic engineering, plus the previously used immunosuppressant drugs, can "open the way for the emergence of new viral mosaics into the general population" (Anderson, 2006).
R&D: Investors forecast promising results
To address the scarcity of organs accessible for transplantation, EGenesis, a biotech company, has raised an additional $100 million for its program, which involves genetically editing pig organs to make them safe for use on humans. With the participation of new investors, such as Wellington Partners and Leaps by Bayer, the investment arm of Bayer AG, the total funding for eGenesis has increased to an incredible $138 million. Fresenius Medical Care Ventures heads the investment. Already existing investors Vinod Khosla's Khosla Ventures, a billionaire venture capitalist, and Arch Venture Partners participated.
These investors all hope that pig organs are the future of human medication. What faith in these medical advancements caused them to spend millions of dollars in support?
Xenotransplantation (interspecies organ transplants ) has been conceptualised for a very long time. The first transplant, done in 1838 by Richard Kissam, was more than 100 years ago. These investors believe that the key to ending the global transplant shortage is developing Xenotransplantation further to perfection.
Conclusion:
After extensive research about the controversial use of pig kidneys as a supplement to human ones, we have come to the conclusion that this revolutionary medical procedure will undoubtedly prove useful as we step into the future of modern medicine. However, more time and precautions will need to be taken before we can officially use such transplants for a more widespread treatment. After all, we do not want another Richard Slayman incident in the foreseeable future.
References:
Gareth MalcolmContent Partner Manager at Turnitin, Malcolm, G., Turnitin, C. P. M. at, Kathleen ShearerExecutive Director of the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), Shearer, K., Executive Director of the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), Adviser, B. J. P., Johnson, B., & Adviser, R. P. (n.d.). Aggregating the world’s Open Access Research Papers. CORE. https://core.ac.uk/
Halaye, T. (2022, April 1). Tissue Banking Market Growth Include Rising Healthcare Spending, Chronic Diseases, and Advancements in Medicine Research and Development. Exactitude Consultancy. https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/post/tissue-banking-market-growth/
First person to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant dies almost 2 months later. (2024, May 12). NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/first-genetically-modified-pig-kidney-transplant-dies-rick-slayman-rcna151851
Yousif, B. N. (2024, April 4). Pig kidney transplant patient leaves hospital. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68710229
eGenesis | Organ Shortage Crisis | A Need for New Therapies. (2023, April 13). egenesisbio.com. https://egenesisbio.com/transplant-shortage/