Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: LONDON (Reuters) - A leading British transplant technology firm Tuesday announced a plan to test the safety of transplanting animal organs to humans. Imutran, a British subsidiary of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, said if the research went ahead as planned, it could lead to the first transplant of a genetically altered pig's kidney and heart into humans. But the company's chief operating officer, Dr. Corinne Savill, stressed that safety concerns, particularly transmission of pig viruses to humans, would be the top priority in assessing the value of the technology. "If we find any evidence of transmission of pig viruses we will re-evaluate our approach," she told a press briefing. Xenotransplantation -- the use of organs, tissues or cells from a different species -- was thought to be the ideal solution to the increasing demand for replacement organs and the dwindling number of donors. But then scientists discovered that two types of pig viruses were capable of infecting human cells. The viruses, called porcine endogenous retroviruses, cause no symptoms in pigs. But scientists do not know if they can be transferred to humans during transplants or if they can mutate and cause disease. The finding sparked fears that cross-species transplants could lead to a new pathogen like the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, and provoked calls for a moratorium. An international group, Doctors and Lawyers for Responsible Medicine, launched a campaign in London earlier this year to ban xenotransplantion, saying it could lead to an epidemic that could kill billions of people. Savill said Imutran was already conducting studies of monkeys that had received genetically modified pig hearts or kidneys, and was currently testing 150 patients worldwide who had been given living pig tissues. Although no pig-to-human organ transplants have taken place, many people have already received pig skin for burn treatment and pancreatic islet cells from pigs for diabetes. Pig livers or kidneys have been used as temporary dialysis machines. Results of the human study, done in collaboration with the Center for Disease Control in the United States, are expected in the summer. If there is no trace of the pig retroviruses, Savill said Imutran would set up a small trial using genetically modified pig livers as temporary liver dialysis machines for patients with liver failure. Savill stressed all the studies would be carefully monitored. If they are all successful and approval is granted, Imutran hopes the first transplant of a pig's kidney to a human will be followed by the transplant of a pig's heart. Savill could not give a time scale for the organ transplants. Doctors must first make sure the transgenic organs will function in humans, and regulatory approval is also needed. "Even if the trials go ahead, it will be a long time," she said. Dr. David White, Imutran's director of research and development, told the briefing that if the pig viruses are shown to be harmful to humans, there is still the possibility that scientists may eventually be able to breed them out of pigs. -- Two rules in life: 1. Don't tell people everything you know. 2. Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
