In November, NYU Langone clinicians successfully transplanted a gene-edited pig kidney into an Alabama woman.
Three weeks later, the patient, Towana Looney, said she is feeling "full of energy" and has "an appetite I've never had in eight years."
After donating a kidney to her mother, Ms. Looney developed preeclampsia and high blood pressure, which contributed to a chronic kidney disease diagnosis. She started dialysis and was on a transplant waiting list for nearly eight years, but the probability of a safe human kidney transplant was slim.
After receiving United Therapeutics' 10 gene-edited pig kidney, Ms. Looney, 53, is visiting NYU Langone daily for evaluation. The system said it expects she will be able to return to Gaston, Ala., within three months.
"I can put my hand on this kidney and feel it buzzing," she said in a Dec. 17 news conference. "It's so strong."
The New York City-based system is a national leader in xenotransplantations. At NYU Langone, Ms. Looney's procedure is the seventh human-pig transplant, fifth kidney xenotransplantation and second in a living human.
The previous NYU Langone patient who received a pig kidney died in July. Robert Montgomery, MD, PhD, director of the system's Transplant Institute, said Ms. Looney's case is different because the other patient, Lisa Pisano, 54, had kidney failure, heart failure and "was days to weeks away from dying."
"The intention there was just to try to extend her life," Dr. Montgomery said about Ms. Pisano, adding that Ms. Looney is in better physical condition. "We feel that the pig kidney can replace a human kidney and can recapitulate all the different functions that the human kidney does."
The field of xenotransplantation is in its "infancy," he said, but with every transplant, the process improves and NYU Langone is now better equipped to respond to transplant rejection.
NYU Langone plans to submit an investigational new drug application to the FDA soon and begin clinical trials within a year.