NEW YORK– An Alabama woman is recovering well after a… kidney transplantation of pigs last month freed her from eight years of dialysis, the latest attempt to save human lives with animal organs.
Towana Looney is the fifth American given a gene-edited pig organ – and remarkably, she is not as sick as previous recipients who died inside two months of receiving a pig kidney or heart.
“It’s like a new beginning,” Looney, 53, told The Associated Press. Immediately the energy I had was amazing. Having a functioning kidney – and feeling it – is incredible.”
Looney’s surgery marks an important step as scientists prepare for formal xenotransplantation studies expected to begin next year, said Dr. Robert Montgomery of NYU Langone Health, who led the highly experimental procedure.
Looney is recovering well from her transplant, which was announced on Tuesday. She was released from the hospital just 11 days after the operation to continue recovery in a nearby apartment, although she was temporarily readmitted this week while her medications were adjusted. Doctors expect her to return to Alabama within three months. If the pig’s kidney failed, she could start dialysis again.
“It’s extraordinary to see that there is hope again for her and her family,” said Dr. Jayme Locke, Looney’s original surgeon who received Food and Drug Administration approval for the Nov. 25 transplant.
More than 100,000 people are on the U.S. transplant list, most of whom need a kidney. Thousands die while waiting and many more people in need of a transplant never qualify. Now looking for an alternative offering, scientists are genetically altering pigs so that their organs appear more human.
Looney donated a kidney to her mother in 1999. Later, a complication during pregnancy caused high blood pressure that damaged her remaining kidney, which ultimately failed. It is incredibly rare for living donors to develop kidney failure, although those who do are given extra priority on the transplant list.
But Looney couldn’t find a match: She had developed antibodies abnormally primed to attack another human kidney. Tests showed that she would reject any kidney donor offered.
Then Looney heard about pig kidney research at T The University of Alabama at Birmingham and told Locke, then a UAB transplant surgeon, that she would like to try one. In April 2023, Locke filed an FDA application for an emergency experiment, under rules for people like Looney who have run out of options.
The FDA did not immediately agree. Instead, the world’s first genetically modified pig kidney transplants went to two sicker patients last spring, at Massachusetts General Hospital and NYU. Both also had serious heart disease. The Boston patient recovered enough to spend about a month at home before dying of sudden cardiac arrest unrelated to the pig kidney. The NYU patient had heart complications that damaged her pig kidney, requiring its removal, and she later died.
Those disappointing results didn’t deter Looney, who started feeling worse on dialysis but, Locke said, had not developed heart disease or other complications. The FDA eventually allowed her to be transplanted to NYU, where Locke worked with Montgomery.
Even if her new organ fails, doctors can learn from it, Looney told the AP: “You don’t know if it’s going to work or not until you try.”
Blacksburg, Virginia-based Revivicor provided Looney’s new kidney from a pig with 10 gene changes. Moments after Montgomery sewed the kidney into place, the kidney turned a healthy pink and began producing urine.
Looney was initially fired on December 6. She wore monitors to track her blood pressure, heart rate and other body functions and returned to the hospital for daily checks before being put back on medication. Doctors closely examine her blood work and other tests and compare them to previous animal research a few people hoping to get an early warning if problems arise.
“A lot of what we’re seeing, we’re seeing for the first time,” Montgomery said.
During a visit last week to Locke, who now works for the federal government, Looney hugged her old doctor and said, “Thank you for not giving up on me.”
“Never,” Locke replied.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.