Researchers are attempting to learn what has led to the death of the person who has received the pig’s heart during his heart transplant surgery. Researchers are trying to conclude whether it had played any role in a man’s death.
A Maryland man who was found dead in March, the researchers have discovered the organ harboured an animal virus.
In March, David Bennett Sr. died just two months after the experiment transplant. In the statement on Tuesday, the University of Maryland doctors mentioned that they discovered an unwelcome surprise, including the viral DNA inside the pig’s heart. They did not find signs that this infection was called porcine cytomegalovirus, which was causing infection.
The major worry about animal-to-human transplants is the risk that they could introduce new kinds of infections to individuals.
Along with this, some of the viruses are “latent,” meaning they lurk without causing the disease, “it could be a hitchhiker,” The surgeon who performed Bennett’s transplant named Dr Bartley Griffith.
Some of the developments are underway in more sophisticated tests to “make sure that we don’t miss these kinds of viruses,” added Dr Muhammad Mohiuddin, scientific director of the university’s xenotransplant program.
Meanwhile, the MIT Technology Review first reported the animal virus, citing a scientific presentation Griffith gave to the American Society of Transplantation last month.
For decades, doctors have tried using animal organs to save human lives without success. Bennett, who was dying as well as ineligible for a human heart transplant, underwent the last-ditch operation using a heart from a pig genetically modified to lower the risk that his immune system would rapidly reject such a foreign organ.
