Slashdot Mirror
New Discovery May End Transplant Rejection
mmmscience writes with this excerpt from the Examiner:
"Big news in the medical world: scientists in Australia have found a way to stop the body from attacking organ transplants, greatly decreasing the possibility of organ rejection. ... When a new tissue is introduced, one's immune system kicks into overdrive, sending out cells known as killer T cells to attack and destroy the unknown tissue. ... Professor Jonathan Sprent and Dr. Kylie Webster from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research focused on a different type of T cells — known as regulatory T cells (Treg) — in this study. Tregs are capable of quieting the immune system, stopping the killer T cells from seeking out and attacking foreign objects."
This will make organlegging possible. If you can just grab any kidney off the street and use it to replace a failing one, people will.
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
As someone about to donate a kidney this summer, I really hope they work on this research more. Donor matching is incredibly difficult, and the risk of rejection poses issues not only with the health of the recipient (though that's obviously the major issue), but also with the psychological health of the donor. A failed donation can make you feel like crap.
by providing some sort of prevention, could this research help with autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabeties?
I wonder if this could help in regards to allergies? I.e. stop the immune system from "reacting" too much?
And in those 2-3 weeks they keep the person in a steril room devoid of any potential bacteria/virus' that could harm the person.
Hopefully they will be able to run positive clinical trials in the future. So far this is only effective on mice on relatively simple procedures (skin grafts, and pancreatic transfers). Kidneys, hearts, lungs are huge deals. I'm assuming if this hurdle is passed the doner would only need to have a blood-type match? That would be awesome and would make the waiting list that much simpler.
I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
Is caused by the immune system not recognizing a foreign invader, the organ being transplanted.
No?
Then this guy wants to turn off that ability in the body?
Yes?
Historically speaking, whenever doctors have taken that approach it results in massive infection, and usually heart and lung problems.
You would think after so many complications from transplants, they would stop pursuing that direction.
Adult stem cell research seems to be the best approach to me. Same tissue so no rejection, and they do not have all of the problems fetal cells have. (i.e. Fetal stem cells have a nasty habit of becoming tumors.)
Somehow, Adult stem cells "know" what to do and when to stop growing appropriately much better than fetal stem cells when considering tissue regeneration in heart attack patients for example.
Not that doctors understand any of this process, but why they continue to invest so much money in transplant research is baffling. The quality of life for people financially and medically sucks for current transplant recipients.
-Hack
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
1.) Correct.
:D
2.) Also correct.
Immunosuppressant drugs, besides increasing the risk of infection and cancer, also screw with the kidneys, liver, and pancreas. So besides the fun 1-2 punch of increased risk of infection post-surgery and having a weaker immune system to fight it with, you can also have a delightful bouquet of metabolic issues to go with it. This treatment seems to take the "traffic control" route, instead of mass-nuking the entire T-cell population.
3.) If the rejection is hyperacute (immediate) or acute (several days to weeks after transplant), it's treatable. Chronic rejection, though, is irreversible and requires a lifetime of immunosuppressants. Exception: if bone marrow can also be transplanted, this effectively replaces the recipient's immune system with the donor's, so there is no rejection.
Overall, this looks pretty damn promising. If they could also figure out what happened with Demi-Lee Brennan, we'd be well on our way to Bioshock-style instant upgrades
3) Not sure about this: I think that people need to take immunosuppressants for a LONG time after the transplant, thus pumping in toxins AND keeping the defenses low, where as this idea is a one time thing you do before the transplant and are then done with.
My father had a lung transplant about 5 years ago. You have to take the immunosuppressants forever with any inner body transplant (like heart, kidney, lung, etc). The immunosuppressants are quite good, but their side effects are significant and effect the life of a person. My father had to take significant amounts of pills daily at very specific times for everything to work properly. The pills also place quite a strain on the kidneys.
Bizarrely enough, that's what eventually killed him. The doctors (who, BTW, were outstanding) switched him to an immunosuppressant that was less stressful on his kidneys. The new drug had one very rare side effect that would eventually cause death. Dumb father didn't tell them he was having problems with new drug until it was too late and his body rejected the lung killing him. But Dad got 5 extra years that we wouldn't have had otherwise.
And the article is wrong about one point. The biggest problem for transplant recipients is not the drugs themselves. I.E. the effects on the body. That's bad. What's worse is the cost of the drugs and all the associated aftercare. The costs of the drugs are so great that unless one has a quite good insurance policy or a small fortune, your going to lose just about one's entire worth to pay for drugs. To me that's the second great advantage to this finding.
BTW, if anyone out there is looking for an outstanding lung transplant program, the program at Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles is fantastic. The doctors are great, the support staff is first rate, and the care they give you is outstanding.
That's not true, immunotherapies have historically not required permanent treatment. This isn't that much different from allergy shots or immunizations.
Eventually the body adapts to having the pathogens there and realizes they aren't harmful. The big concern with rejection is that the body will kill off the cells before that happens.
It depends upon the technique, but for many of the therapies it only takes 3-5 years, which even at double that is greatly superior to how we handle it now.
$80/month is less than what I spend on gas to get to work. Heck, annualize my computer purchases and I'd likely spend more on computer stuff than that. My telephone/internet costs more (cell phone, landline+DSL).
I assume you're talking about your copays?
That's the thing about insurance - when you're looking at costs to society, you need to include the whole cost, not just deductibles/copays. You generally end up paying the money eventually.
I don't read AC A human right
I had a liver transplant almost a decade ago and haven't had a single problem with rejection. Strangely, I haven't had any infections and can't remember having any colds since my transplant. I stopped taking the prescribed steroids a few months after the transplant and have cut my anti-rejection drugs to a quarter the prescribed dose a couple times, for a couple weeks to see if I would have any reaction, after reading that 20% of liver transplant patients can survive without drugs. I can only guess that my body is able to fight infection or ignores the rhino virus and that the donor was a pretty close match (cadaver, unrelated to me). Both sides of my family have been in America for nearly 400 years, so I would guess I share genes with a large number of people and may have been lucky enough to find a donor that shares some of those genes. I would like to stop taking the anti-rejection drugs and truly believe the odds are better than 50% that I could just quit, because of the lack of problems I have experienced, but am not willing to take the chance that I may reject the organ. The anti-rejection drugs will eventually take my kidneys out, so the sooner they find a solution the better.