No evidence of porcine endogenous retrovirus in patients with type 1 diabetes after long-term porcine islet xenotransplantation

• Published in: Journal of medical virology 2010-02, Vol.82 (2), p.331-334
• Main Authors: Valdes-Gonzalez, Rafael, Dorantes, Luis M, Bracho-Blanchet, Eduardo, Rodríguez-Ventura, Ana, DJG, White
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 - therapy; DNA, Viral - isolation & purification; Endogenous Retroviruses - isolation & purification; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gammaretrovirus - isolation & purification; Human viral diseases; Humans; Infectious diseases; Leukocytes - virology; Male; Medical sciences; Microbiology; Miscellaneous; neonatal porcine islets; Polymerase Chain Reaction; porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV); Retroviridae Infections - diagnosis; Retroviridae Infections - virology; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Viral - isolation & purification; Swine; Transplantation, Heterologous - adverse effects; Tumor Virus Infections - diagnosis; Tumor Virus Infections - virology; type 1 diabetes; Viral diseases; Virology; xenotransplantation; Young Adult; zoonosis
• ISSN: 0146-6615; 1096-9071
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.21655

Xenotransplantation is a promising alternative for donor shortage to ameliorate physiologic and metabolic disorders. The major concern for xenotransplant is the risk of zoonosis mainly by the porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV), presentation in the piglet genome. Twenty-three patients with type 1 diabetes were transplanted with porcine islets using collagen-generating devices which were implanted subcutaneously in the anterior wall of the abdomen. Clinical characteristics and metabolic tests were recorded in each visit. They were tested for PERV using PCR and RT-PCR from blood pretransplantation and every 3 months during a 4.6- to 8-year follow-up after their first xenotransplant. Tests by PCR of every DNA sample (780 samples) revealed that there was no PERV infection in the DNA of white cells. No evidence of PERV activation was found in this group of patients with type 1 diabetes during clinical long-term follow-up. J. Med. Virol. 82:331-334, 2010.