The world's first! The New York Times reported that a 57-year-old man with heart disease, David Bennett, successfully received the first heart transplant from a genetically modified pig in Baltimore.
So far, the pig's heart has not shown any rejection reaction, and it has been beating normally for 4 days.
The 57-year-old patient, David Bennett
1. Can breathe on his own, as if it were his own heart
David, who received a heart transplant from a pig, previously suffered from severe heart failure, and his life entered the final countdown state, and he could only use the machine to maintain normal heart function. In his own words, the current situation is: die or transplant.
But at present, the number of organs for heart transplantation is very scarce, according to the organ sharing website: less than one-tenth of patients can wait for a suitable heart, and there are tens of thousands of people waiting on the transplant list. Based on this, David underwent the world's first gene-edited swine heart transplant.
Porcine heart transplantation process
Fortunately, the 8-hour operation went very smoothly, and so far David's life and physique are normal, and there has been no rejection. He can already breathe on his own without relying on a ventilator, and within a week he can leave the blood circulation machine assist.
Bartley, the director of dirty transplantation, was pleased with the results: the 48 hours after the operation were important, everything went well, his heart had a pulse, we are very excited about this, if the heart can still function smoothly in the next few weeks, this will really be a milestone leap in the direction of organ transplantation.
2. Not an ordinary pig, 10 genes have been modified
The heart of the selected pig is not an ordinary pig.
This is a gene-edited "GalSafe pig." Scientists have adapted 10 genes to these pigs, and 4 of them have been inactivated or eliminated to avoid aggressive rejection in humans. The donor is a 1-year-old 200-pound GalSafe pig" that has undergone complete genetic modification and the feeding process is strictly for the purpose of organ transplantation.
This gene-edited "GalSafe pig" has been approved by the FDA (U.S. Administration) at the end of 2020, and if the pig heart can continue to work autonomously after this operation, it may be transplanted on a larger scale.
"This is a surprise brought to us by gene editing." In addition to the successful heart transplant, at the end of October last year, New York University also successfully implanted the gene-edited pig kidney into the human body without rejection within 54 hours. In fact, in addition to the field of organ transplantation, gene editing technology initially emerged in the field of intervention aging.
Biologist Shinya Yamanaka developed a gene reprogramming technique in 2006 that re-edited the genes of adults to theoretically greatly extend the survival time of humans. In addition, biologist Sinkri carried out further research, overcame the uncontrollable technical problems of gene recomprehension, and discovered a more stable coenzyme I molecule, which was also selected as the TOP100 influential person of Time Magazine.
Through this substance, not only can the telomere changes brought about by gene editing be achieved, but also the physiological indicators of the human body are further improved, so that the body functions can return to a more youthful state. The "Amuyin", which is the main substance, swept the country, and after the introduction of Kyomeow in the past few years, it had a large number of clusters in a short period of time. Even the Sinclair family has been trying to change elements for many years, and his father, who is in his 80s, is still a regular visitor to the gym and climbing hall.
In addition to his own endorsement, many well-known universities such as the University of Tokyo and the University of New South Wales have carried out scientific research. They found that the substance has a positive feedback on the muscle strength and athletic ability of the elderly, which makes the heat of the "amyne" molecular agent increase exponentially. The gene editing technology has re-energized in organ transplantation, and it is not known what areas will benefit from this technology in the future.
3. This is the real meaning of technology, the heart is just a beginning
The current organ transplant market is in severe shortage to meet the needs of the vast majority of patients, and hundreds of people die every day because they can't wait for the right organs. Xenotransplantation can even be traced back to the 17th century, after more than 400 years of development and progress. In the 1960s, humans tried to transplant chimpanzee kidneys into patients, but they all failed due to physical rejection.
The world's first successful transplant of pig heart may begin a new era, which is probably the true meaning of continuous progress and development of science and technology. Gene editing will not only extend the "Amuyin" molecule to promote the youthful state of the body, but this time will solve the problem of organ transplantation that has plagued humans for 400 years, and we have reason to believe that the heart may be just the beginning.
Science and technology update iteration, look forward to the future can bring more surprises to mankind.