David Bennett died in March, aged 57, two months after receiving a heart transplanted from a pig. The heart may have failed due to a viral infection
raised for biomedical research. These tests came back positive even on samples that were negative when tested by labs in the US.
“The testing referenced by the researcher in your article is experimental [and] was not available to our surgeon-scientists at the time of this transplant,” says the Maryland spokesperson, when asked if these tests were used by Griffith’s team. Detecting latent infections – where the viral DNA is sitting in a few cells and no viruses are being produced – is harder than identifying active infections, but it can be done in two ways. The first is to look for the viral DNA in blood or tissue samples. The second is to look for antibodies to the virus. Denner’s lab uses both methods. It is unclear which tests were carried out before Bennett’s transplant.
If the virus contributed to Bennett’s death, rather than it having happened because his immune system rejected the organ, the results of Denner’s baboon study suggest that other transplant recipients may live longer if given virus-free hearts. Pigs can be guaranteed to be free of porcine cytomegalovirusRevivicor, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics, developed the pig behind Bennett’s transplant and hasn’t commented on the detection of the virus.
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