Can this be an alternative to traditional organ transplants?
/In the next few months, several people who need liver transplants but cannot get them will get a second chance at life.
LyGenesis, a Pittsburgh-based biotechnology company working to use a patient’s lymph nodes to grow functioning organs, will inject liver cells from a donor into the lymph nodes of sick recipients. The goal is to grow new miniature organs that will help compensate for an existing diseased one.
The company has tested this approach in mice, pigs and dogs. Soon, we’ll find out if it works in people.
LyGenesis hopes to save people who have serious liver diseases but are not eligible for transplants. If the science works, the treatment could be revolutionary. Donor organs are in short supply, and many cannot be used because they are too damaged. Similarly, some people in need of transplants often cannot get them because they simply may not healthy enough to benefit from them.
The new approach promises to overcome both obstacles.
It can use a relative handful of healthy cells from organs that would otherwise have been discarded and researchers tell MIT Technology Review they expect to get treatments for about 75 people from a single donated organ.
The approach also overcomes some of the barriers to liver transplant because it is far less invasive than traditional procedures. Why? Surgeons will not perform transplants on patients who are too week or too ill.
LyGenesis will test its treatment in 12 adults with end-stage liver disease, a chronic liver failure that worsens over time. The disease kills liver cells, and healthy tissue is replaced with scar tissue. People with the disease are at risk of diabetes, infections and liver cancer.
Liver transplants are often recommended for people with this disease, but there are not enough donated livers to go around. About 10% of people waiting for a liver transplant in the U.S. will die before getting an organ
If this approach works in humans, it may be a game changer for people waiting for a liver transplant. First, it maximizes use of available liver cells – potentially solving the liver shortage that costs so many lives. Second, it is far less invasive.
LyGenesis delivers healthy liver cells using an endoscope that is fed down the throat. It will be guided by ultrasound to a target lymph node, which a surgeon will inject with healthy donor liver cells.
The company intends to use lymph nodes are organ generators. The company is also exploring the use of lymph nodes to grow new thymuses, kidneys, and pancreases. But the company’s priority is livers.
We’re extremely excited by the research. It offers the kind of promise we imagined when we developed the seven strategies that guide Methuselah Foundation investments, planning and policies. In particular, access to transplantable organs is an example of “new parts for people,” a strategy focused on technologies to make available replacement parts of our bodies, including organs, cartilage, bones and vasculature.
We envision a day when replacing organs will be as easy as replacing parts in a car. LyGenesis’ work would help to make that possible. And it will be another important step towards reaching our goal of making 90 the new 50 by 2030.