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Researchers have found a way to reduce organ rejection after a transplant by using a special polymer to line the blood vessels of the organ to be transplanted.
The polymer, developed by UBC professor of medicine Dr. Jayachandran Kizhakkedathu and his team at the Center for Blood Research and Life Sciences Institute, significantly decreased transplant rejection in mice when tested by collaborators from SFU and Northwestern University.
“We hope this breakthrough will one day improve the quality of life of transplant patients and the lifespan of transplanted organs,” said Dr Kizhakkedathu.
The results were published today in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
The discovery has the potential to eliminate the need for drugs – usually with serious side effects – that transplant recipients rely on to prevent their immune systems from attacking a new organ as a foreign object.
Dr Kizhakkedathu explained how this problem arises: “The blood vessels of our organs are protected by a coating of special types of sugars which suppress the reaction of the immune system, but in the process of obtaining organs for transplantation, these sugars are damaged and can no longer carry their message. “
Dr. Kizhakkedathu’s team synthesized a polymer to mimic these sugars and developed a chemical process to apply it to blood vessels. He worked with UBC chemistry professor Dr. Stephen Withers and the study’s lead co-authors, PhD student Daniel Luo and recent PhD in chemistry Dr. Erika Siren.
Dr. Siren’s thinking on cell surface engineering was inspired by a visit to a BC Transplant facility.
“I remember seeing an organ sitting in a solution and thinking, ‘Here’s a perfect window to design something good,'” recalls Dr Siren. “There aren’t a lot of situations where you have that nice four hour window where the organ is outside the body, and you can directly design it for therapeutic benefit.”
The work of Dr. Jonathan Choy of Simon Fraser University and Winnie Enns confirmed that a mouse artery, coated in this way and then transplanted, would exhibit strong long-term resistance to inflammation and rejection. Dr Caigan Du of UBC and Dr Jenny Zhang of Northwestern University then obtained similar results from a kidney transplant between mice. UBC’s Dr. Megan Levings and the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute confirmed the results using next-generation immune cells.
“We were amazed at the ability of this new technology to prevent rejection in our studies,” said Dr. Choy, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at SFU. “To be honest, the level of protection was unexpected.”
The procedure has only been applied to blood vessels and kidneys in mice so far. Clinical trials in humans could still take several years. Still, researchers are optimistic that it could work equally well on the lungs, heart, and other organs, which would be great news for future donors of donated organs.
In 2019, more than 3,000 Canadians underwent organ transplants in an effort to prevent end-stage organ failure.
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Material provided by University of British Columbia. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.
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