Gene chip aims to prevent transplant need
Monday July 5th, 2010
A "Brum gene chip" has been developed by British doctors as part of a treatment revolution aimed at reducing the need for transplants.
The
chip tests for 100 genes in a speck of blood and is about to be brought
into use at the Liver Unit at Birmingham Children's Hospital - which marked
its 21st Birthday at the weekend.
Unit founder Professor Deirdre Kelly revealed the development of the chip as clinicians together with hundreds of former patients gathered in advance of National Transplant Week.
She said: "With a single blood test we can diagnose whether any of the children have any of the known genetic liver diseases. We will be able to make the diagnosis in a few days instead of the six to 12 months that is normal. We can then treat these children effectively and avoid liver transplantation."
The unit has been involved in some 800 transplant operations in 21 years and led the way on a number of techniques - such as splitting donated organs. But Professor Kelly said the aim of treatment now must be to reduce the need for organ transplants by means of early diagnosis and treatment.
Surgeon Khalid Sharif said many of the current techniques developed to avoid organ transplantation - such as stem cell and liver cell transplants and bio-artificial organs - had proved disappointing and predicted that full transplants would be needed for several decades more.
He said: "So far all the data we have on these new therapies is that they do not provide any long-term benefit. It is short term only. I am sure in the future we will have therapies that are more successful.
"They
are still useful because they can save a patient with acute liver failure
and provide a bridge to a full transplantation as an elective operation."
He predicted that organ regeneration - regrowing a patient's own liver from a few cells - would be the most successful future development.
Professor Kelly recalled arriving at the hospital with an annual budget of £250,000. Within a year this was increased to £2 million and the hospital became a major centre for complex transplants.
Among transplant patients at the celebration was Gemma Sanders, aged 26, from Solihull, West Midlands, who had a transplant in 1990 at the age of six, a year after the founding of the unit. Gemma stopped needing to take immune suppressant drugs two years ago.
Her mother Julie recalled: "It was a very anxious time at the time but we put our faith in the doctors and the medical team. She's now one of the longer-living ones and it's wonderful she's able to not take any anti-rejection medications."
Tags: Child Health | Internal Medicine | UK News
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