Publikationsdatenbank

Porcine endogenous retroviruses in xenotransplantation (2024)

Art

Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag

Autor

Denner, Joachim (WE 5)

Quelle

Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation

Seiten: 1 – 7

ISSN: 0931-0509

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

URL (Volltext): https://academic.oup.com/ndt/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ndt/gfae023/7590815?login=true

DOI: 10.1093/ndt/gfae023

Pubmed: 38281060

Kontakt

Institut für Virologie

Robert-von-Ostertag-Str. 7-13
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 51833
virologie@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

Xenotransplantation using pig cells, tissues or organs is under development to alleviate the shortage of human donor organs. Meanwhile remarkably long survival times of pig organs in non-human primates were reported as well as the functionality of pig kidneys and hearts in brain-dead humans. Most importantly, two transplantations of pig hearts in patients were performed with survival times of the patients of 8 and 6 weeks. Xenotransplantation may be associated with the transmission of porcine microorganisms including viruses to the recipient. Porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) are integrated in the genome of all pigs and cannot be eliminated like other viruses can. PERVs are able to infect certain human cells and pose therefore a risk for xenotransplantation. It is well known that retroviruses are able to induce tumors and immunodeficiencies. However, until now, PERV was not transmitted in all infection experiments using small animals and non-human primates, in all preclinical xenotransplantation trials in non-human primates and in all clinical trials in humans. In addition, several strategies including antiretrovirals, PERV-specific siRNA, vaccines and genome editing using CRISPR/Cas have been developed to prevent PERV transmission.