Cambridge, MA, February 13, 2004 -- This week in the
Journal of Virology (1 March 2004, Vol 78 No 5), researchers from Immerge BioTherapeutics, Inc., announced that the porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) that are most infectious for human cells are not components of the germ line DNA of miniature swine, as previously thought. This is a crucial discovery with regard to developing modes of eliminating these viruses from pigs being developed for clinical xenotransplantation. It suggests that lengthy breeding programs, which were thought to be necessary to remove germ-line viruses, might no longer be required.
"Our identification that human-tropic PERV is acquired somewhere during life, rather than something the pig is born with is a major step forward. It allows us to develop measures that will ensure these viruses are not present in cells and organs of miniature swine destined for clinical use," said Dr Clive Patience, Director of the Safety Program at Immerge. "We did not identify any viruses in the germ-line DNA of the miniature swine that could infect human cells. On the rare occasion that we could infect human cells, the viruses were exogenous recombinants that we believe we can control through standard methods in breeding and raising microbiologically-clean pigs."
Although risk of PERV infection in xenotransplantation had previously been theoretical, the issue became of critical concern when it was reported that germ-line forms of PERV could infect some human cells in laboratory tissue cultures (Patience et al., Nature Medicine; 3: 282-6, 1997). The new data regarding exogenous PERV was generated in a collaborative effort between Immerge and the academic research group of Professor David Onions and Linda Scobie at the University of Glasgow, UK.
"PERV is of concern in developing xenotransplantation of porcine organs towards an accepted procedure in clinical medicine," commented Professor Onions. "This discov
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Contact: Susan Hayes
shayesconsult@earthlink.net
212-533-4472
S. Hayes Consulting
13-Feb-2004
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