[Boudica]

David Bennett, a 57-year-old handyman from the US, was dying. He was ineligible for a human heart transplant due to heart failure and an irregular heart beat, leaving Bennett with only one option left for survival: A transplant of a heart from a genetically modified pig, to Bennett. While we hear of medical innovations and progress all the time, we also know that organ transplants have long waiting lists, and are still incredibly risky, even with human organ donors. Studies into animal to human transplants have been ongoing for years, but it is ethically difficult to carry out experiments on human patients. Due to Bennett's condition, this was a last resort effort to save him, and he is currently still surviving three days after the surgery. Doctors will be monitoring him in the coming weeks to see whether the organ fails or not.

Please see a portion of an article on the event below:

Code:

There’s a huge shortage of human organs donated for transplant, driving scientists to try to figure out how to use animal organs instead. Last year, there were just over 3,800 heart transplants in the U.S., a record number, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation’s transplant system.

“If this works, there will be an endless supply of these organs for patients who are suffering,” said Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, scientific director of the Maryland university’s animal-to-human transplant program.

But prior attempts at such transplants — or xenotransplantation — have failed, largely because patients’ bodies rapidly rejected the animal organ. Notably, in 1984, Baby Fae, a dying infant, lived 21 days with a baboon heart.

The difference this time: The Maryland surgeons used a heart from a pig that had undergone gene-editing to remove a sugar in its cells that’s responsible for that hyper-fast organ rejection. Several biotech companies are developing pig organs for human transplant; the one used for Friday’s operation came from Revivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics.

“I think you can characterize it as a watershed event,” Dr. David Klassen, UNOS’ chief medical officer, said of the Maryland transplant.

Still, Klassen cautioned that it’s only a first tentative step into exploring whether this time around, xenotransplantation might finally work.

The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees such experiments, allowed the surgery under what’s called a “compassionate use” emergency authorization, available when a patient with a life-threatening condition has no other options.

It will be crucial to share the data gathered from this transplant before extending it to more patients, said Karen Maschke, a research scholar at the Hastings Center, who is helping develop ethics and policy recommendations for the first clinical trials under a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

“Rushing into animal-to-human transplants without this information would not be advisable,” Maschke said.

Over the years, scientists have turned from primates to pigs, tinkering with their genes.

Just last September, researchers in New York performed an experiment suggesting these kinds of pigs might offer promise for animal-to-human transplants. Doctors temporarily attached a pig’s kidney to a deceased human body and watched it begin to work.

The Maryland transplant takes their experiment to the next level, said Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led that work at NYU Langone Health.

[mothered]

Due to Bennett's condition, this was a last resort effort to save him

Any chance of life Is a bonus.

Hopefully his body doesn't reject the transplant, and can live a productive life.

[Shionari]

Damn. This is the first time I hear about animal-to-human transplants, and I'm speechless at the potential it contains. So many lives could be saved if we can figure out a way to make it work.
It's great to hear that the transplant was a success. Hopefully, it stays that way

[Dismas]

Really cool when you start reading about how they're performing gene-editing, to target the causes of rejection.

[Boudica]

Damn. This is the first time I hear about animal-to-human transplants, and I'm speechless at the potential it contains. So many lives could be saved if we can figure out a way to make it work.
It's great to hear that the transplant was a success. Hopefully, it stays that way

There's incredible potential for this. It's just very difficult to study or ethically experiment on human patients.

Really cool when you start reading about how they're performing gene-editing, to target the causes of rejection.

That stuff is mind-blowing. Very impressive! I wonder if it could relate to cloning and lab grown organs (for the animal rights activists and general ethics). Can you imagine if we could sort of "mass-produce" organs that could save so many people.

[RH30]

if it works, why not! The truth is if so many methods from before that today are normal think about it, they used to be rare or not common and now they are used daily. I hope that when I get old I can put on bionic parts and extend my life connected to a computer or something like that.

[mothered]

I hope that when I get old I can put on bionic parts and extend my life connected to a computer or something like that.

I wonder what one's quality of life would be when purely In the hands of technology.

[WButler89]

I am not surprised to hear news of this case. The pig is genetically the closest creature to man, and such experiments have been carried out for several years. China seems to have had a pork liver transplanted back in 2019, and in 2020 a patient with multiple burns received pork skin.

[RH30]

I hope that when I get old I can put on bionic parts and extend my life connected to a computer or something like that.

I wonder what one's quality of life would be when purely In the hands of technology.

probabbly will be cool and scary at the same time jajaja, ill be thinking like Irobot moive type of shit. but sadly dont think ill be alive to see that kind of world. maybe my grandchildren will or they´re childs

[mothered]

probabbly will be cool and scary at the same time jajaja, ill be thinking like Irobot moive type of shit. but sadly dont think ill be alive to see that kind of world. maybe my grandchildren will or they´re childs

Yes, although technology moves fast, we won't experience It anytime within our lifespan.