CCR5 mutation creates a challenge for HIV to infect more cells, thereby creating resistance to the virus.
Stem cell transplantation shows promise as a potential cure for HIV, according to research from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) published in the journal Immunity. According to the investigators, these findings may accelerate efforts in developing a widespread cure for HIV, which has infected approximately 38 million individuals worldwide. Read more in the Pharmacy Times.
By Dave Hart
Excellence and Innovation Drive Duke’s Organ Transplant Program
Nicole Wills knew she was in trouble.
For the previous two years, Wills had been under evaluation and treatment for pulmonary fibrosis as an outpatient at Duke University Hospital, making the trip to Durham every three months from her home in Cramerton, a small town near Charlotte. She had recently undergone a lobectomy, but she was otherwise young and fit, exercising regularly and raising an active 10-year-old son. Read the full story from Duke University School of Medicine.
Effective June 29, 2023, new safety net policies will be implemented for kidney-after-heart and kidney-after-lung allocation. The new policies are similar to the safety net provision already in effect for kidney-after-liver allocation.
Safety net priority classification will be available for qualifying heart, lung, or heart-lung recipients who are listed for a kidney transplant within 365 days of their thoracic transplant.
Read more from UNOS.
By Crystal Phend
Transplants from circulatory-death donor hearts assessed with a perfusion machine did just as well as those procured after brain death and cold storage, a randomized trial showed.
Recipients of a circulatory-death heart had noninferior risk-adjusted 6-month survival compared with brain-death heart recipients (94% vs 90%) in the as-treated population, with a 3-percentage point advantage by the least-squares mean difference calculation in the primary endpoint (P<0.001 for noninferiority). Read the full article in MedPage Today.
In a study, undocumented citizenship, unstable housing and uninsured status were common among people who did not get referrals for transplant evaluation.
Among people whose liver is failing, the perpetual shortage of donor organs inhibits expectations of a timely, life-saving transplant. New research suggests that these people who initially seek care at safety-net hospitals may face additional obstacles to being considered for transplant.
A study of three safety-net hospitals showed that, among patients whose measures of liver health would typically result in a referral for transplant evaluation, only about one-fourth received the referral. The finding was published June 8 in JAMA Network Open. Read more from the UW Medicine Newsroom.
By Elaine Chen
Margaret Gamble was supposed to receive a blood test in the mail in May. It’s a regularly scheduled test to check if her kidney — the second she’s received in a transplant — has been damaged in any way.
Her kidney needs to be constantly monitored since it’s vulnerable to infections or, critically, rejection by her immune system. Read the full story in STAT.
By Regina Schaffer and Scott Buzby
In 2020, heart disease remained among the leading causes of death, even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have exacerbated preexisting CVD morbidity-related racial and ethnic disparities.
As the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic began, more than 3.3 million overall deaths were registered in the U.S., which exceeded the 2019 figure by more than 500,000 deaths, according to the American Heart Association’s annual Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics update. Read the full story in Healio.
By Natasha Persaud
Despite growing access to kidney transplantation, adults older than 65 years are still less likely than younger patients to be waitlisted and receive a first or second kidney, investigators reported at the 2023 American Transplant Congress in San Diego, California.
Using 1995-2018 data from the US Renal Data System, investigators identified 2,495,031 adult patients on dialysis seeking a first kidney transplant and 110,338 adult recipients seeking a second kidney transplant after their initial graft failed.
Read more in Renal & Urology News.
By Alina Kesl
Albert Pedroza was energetic and active, but one day on a hike with his son, he experienced difficulty breathing. Fighting the inner voice in his head that told him to brush it off, he could think only of his family as he scheduled a doctor’s appointment to get checked out.
When Pedroza was told that he had scarring on his lungs likely caused by a previous case of pneumonia or asbestos exposure, he accepted the fact that he would experience periodic breathing difficulties. Read the full story from University Health.