Kidney Transplantation in the U.S. – How Can We Increase the Number of Available Kidneys?

There are more than 90,000 Americans waiting to hear when a donor kidney will become available for them. Many see their health continue to decline as they wait, at least for months and often for years. There are currently not enough donor kidneys available for all the patients who need them, despite efforts to encourage more people to become organ donors. In addition, transplanted kidneys typically eventually fail after about 10-15 years due to organ damage or rejection.? Since the average age at kidney transplant in the United States is 50 years old, this means that many patients will need a second or even third transplant procedure during their lifetime.

While finding more donors is an important goal, it is not the only strategy we can use to make more organs available for transplantation. We should consider a more holistic strategy that addresses this significant area of unmet need in healthcare from several directions simultaneously. Several historic advances in research related to organ transplantation are positioned to have a profoundly positive impact on both patient health and the availability of kidneys for use in transplantation procedures in the years ahead. Here are just a few examples:

·????? In January 2022, surgeons at the 美国马里兰大学帕克分校 implanted the first heart from a genetically modified pig into a human, and just last week announced they had implanted another pig heart in a second patient. While this exciting area of research is still in relatively early days, advances in the use of #xenotransplantation – where organs from genetically modified animals are implanted into humans – could someday lead to an unlimited supply of organs for people who need transplants and companies like eGenesis, Inc. and Revivicor, Inc. are making important and rapid strides in xenotransplantation. Support for xenotransplantation procedures, including a focus on surgical training and patient management, can help improve both safety and access to xenograft for patients.

·????? In recent years, progress has also been made in efforts to position more people who previously could not be organ donors to be able to do so safely. One example is people living with hepatitis C. Organs from hepatitis-C positive donors can now be safely transplanted thanks to the availability of highly effective antiviral medications. After the organs are transplanted, patients begin antiviral treatment that typically eliminates the virus from the body.

·????? In March 2023, our team at Eledon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. presented data from our Phase 1b study demonstrating that treatment with our investigational anti-CD40L antibody #tegoprubart promoted kidney allograft survival and function in 3 subjects. Unlike currently available immunomodulators, tegoprubart blocks CD40 Ligand (CD40L), a protein involved in immune system activation. We have enrolled 11 patients in our Phase 1b study and plan to present updated data at the American Society of Nephrology ’s Kidney Week in November. We believe that tegoprubart may ultimately permit transplanted kidneys to function longer than with the current standard of care, and longer functioning kidneys could mean fewer organs needed for repeat transplantation. Of note, tegoprubart is also being used in heart xenotransplant, as recently announced.

Progress in these and other areas reinforces the critical need for us to consider and support a range of strategies to help address the shortage of available organs for patients who need them. We should continue to inspire more people to become organ donors. But simultaneously we must continue to invest in and advance innovative science that can make more organs available for donation and help them remain viable and function longer. We can get closer to a “one organ for life” goal that will mean broader access to treatment and better outcomes for thousands of patients.??