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Laboratory starts operating at USP with the challenge of allowing organ transplantation between different species

Researchers believe it will be possible to use organs from genetically modified pigs in heart, kidney, skin and cornea transplants, but they would depend on a laboratory with a high level of biological safety.

Jornal Nacional (April 22, 2024)

The University of São Paulo opens this Tuesday (23) an advanced biotechnology laboratory that faces an immense challenge: allowing the transplantation of organs from pigs to humans.

A pig carries the hope of a revolution in Brazilian medicine. The animal is part of a scientific project, a pioneer in Latin America, that wants to reduce the transplant queue with pig organs. Transplantation between different species is called xenotransplantation.

Last month, in the United States, Brazilian doctor Leonardo Riella led the team that, for the first time in history, implanted a pig's kidney into a living human being. Two weeks later, the patient was discharged.

The person who came up with the idea of creating an “organ factory” in Brazil was doctor Silvano Raia, a pioneer in transplants. "In a month or two, we will have the first cloned pigs. I believe that, within a year, this will be working with genetically modified pigs. I believe that, in two years, three years, we will be doing clinical transplants", he says.

To face the genetic challenges of a transplant between different species, Silvano Raia teamed up with biologist Mayana Zatz, coordinator of the Human Genome and Stem Cell Research Center at USP. She will head the development of genetically modified pigs.

"We have known for a long time that pig organs are the most similar to human organs. But if you transplanted an organ from a pig to a human being, you would have a hyperacute rejection. We were then able to identify in pigs which genes are responsible for this rejection and we can edit, silence the genes that cause this hyperacute rejection", explains Zatz.
 

​​​​​​But for all of this to be possible, scientists depended on a laboratory with a high level of biological safety, capable of preventing the germs that circulate outside from contaminating the pigs that would be born inside. Now, this space exists and is ready to start operating.

The first unit of the Xeno BR project will be inaugurated this Tuesday (23). There will be a nursery and daycare center where the pigs will spend the first months of their lives, as explained by veterinarian Michelle Araújo. "Inside this room, the animals will remain until they reach adulthood and until they reach puberty, where we will perform artificial inseminations to obtain the next generations."

Another Xeno BR laboratory, larger than this one, should be ready in October; and a third will still be built. Doctors believe it will be possible to use organs from genetically modified pigs in heart, kidney, skin and cornea transplants.

Architect Damiano Leite had a kidney transplant in 2015, due to a genetic disease. Now you need another one. Just like him, almost 43 thousand Brazilians are waiting for the chance to receive an organ. "It will be a great help for medicine and for us. The more people who donate, it also helps a lot. And opening up more possibilities, there are new ways to save lives", he says.

To watch the report, click here.