Ultraviolet and Red
Light Kill Infections in
Donor Organs
Donor
Organs are hard to come by partially because of ischemic damage, physical damage, presence of infection, and other reasons. Researcher at the University of Toronto in Canada and University of S~ao Paulo in Brazil have developed a method of getting rid of bacteria and viruses from
Donor Organs using only light.
The technique involves first removing all
Donor blood from the organ, running a preservation liquid through the organ, and illuminating
Organs using
Ultraviolet and red
Light for about a half hour or so. In order to boost effectiveness, a photosensitizing drug is introduced into the liquid that is activated by the red light, which in turn oxidizes any pathogens nearby. The perfusion aspect is already a standard of care, but it can’t completely get rid of all pathogens, so the
Light and photosensitizing drug finish off anything left over.
The new technique was tried by transplanting a lung from a
Donor pig that was infected with hepatitis C into another pig. The lung received
Light therapy during normothermic
ex vivo lung perfusion, and the recipient pig went on to fare quite well and avoided becoming infected with hep C.
The researchers hope that their technique will soon be attempted on human
Donor organs, potentially expanding the available number of
Organs for transplantation.
Study in
Nature Communication:
Inactivating hepatitis C virus in donor lungs using light therapies during normothermic ex vivo lung perfusion…
Via:
FAPESP…
