GENE TEST HELPS KIDS WITH KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS
Rejection. It's a scary fact that eats away at donor organs. Anti-rejection drugs are getting better all the time. But new, genetic reserch may add years to donor organs. And for children who need donor kidneys, that could mean a lifetime.
 |
Transcript of the story
|
|
Healthy For Life Extra
extra information about the story |
|
For More Information
where to go for help |
Seven-year-old Madison Kitz needs help ... But not with her video games.
Madison Kitz
Has kidney cancer
"I have kidney cancer, so I have to get dialysis to get that bad stuff out of my body."
Three days a week, a machine at Stanford's Packard Children's Hospital cleans her blood -- since both her kidneys were removed. Waiting for a donor is no fun, but it may get even harder after a transplant. Up to 35 percent of kids given new kidneys suffer acute rejection. That worries Madison's mom.
Lisa Kitz
Madison's mom
"So I'm sure that after the transplant, it's going to be even more intense for a while."
Minnie Sarwal, M.D.
Pediatric Nephrologist
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford
Palo Alto, CA
"What we do need to do is to do better at being able to treat these acute rejections so that we limit that chronic injury and so these organs can last maybe the lifetime of a child."
Doctor Minnie Sarwal, a pediatric nephrologist, suspects rejection drugs treat the wrong cells. That's because under a microscope, antibodies all look alike. So she tested transplant DNA on chips that detect which genes are turned on. Technology traced rejection to B-cells that defy steroids.
Minnie Sarwal, M.D.
"And we had no way of being able to tell who needed the steroids or not. We now have a handle on being able to treat their acute rejection really swiftly."
Doctor Sarwal hopes a clinical trial proves the drug Rituximab protects kidney transplants -- maybe other organs too.
That's promising as both Madison and her mom wait, and hope, for a new lease on life.
Lisa Kitz
"She just wants to be like all the other kids, just like everyone else."
It's a little painful to extract DNA with a biopsy for the gene chip test. So Doctor Sarwal hopes to develop a blood or urine test that screens for rejection without pain.
BACKGROUND: According to Minnie Sarwal, M.D., of Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, acute rejection of solid organ transplants has been one of the biggest challenges to transplanters over the last three or four decades. Doctors have been able to develop new immuno-suppressive drugs but haven't been able to extend the life of the organs. This is largely due to an injury process called chronic rejection. The biggest risk for chronic rejection is acute rejection. It is now up to doctors to find a way to treat acute rejection.
ACUTE REJECTION: Some patients recover function completely from an acute rejection and the organ is not harmed long-term. Other patients lose a lot of function and may lose eight to 10 years of the life of the organ during the acute rejection. Researchers have not been able to understand why one rejection episode is different from the next, which has led them to developing a genomic analysis of acute rejection.
NEW GENE TEST: Using a new gene test, researchers examined thousands and thousands of genes across the entire human genome. They took a plate that consisted of about 40,000 human genes and labeled patients' kidney biopsy samples taken from transplant biopsies. They extracted RNA and used different fluorescently labeled dyes, which transfers the genes into different colored dots. Patients' dots are compared with reference ones. A patient's gene showing an increased expression shows up as a red dot, a gene showing a decreased expression shows up as a green dot, and a gene with an equivalent expression between the reference sample and the patient's sample is a yellow dot. The test helps show how patients' bodies are attacking their transplants. It then clues doctors into whether the patient needs steroids or not. Results are available a few hours after doing a biopsy. Doctors have the chance to treat acute rejection completely because they have drugs that target B-cells specifically. Dr. Sarwal hopes a clinical trial proves the drug Rituximab protects kidney transplants and possibly other organs as well.
THE NEXT STEP: Dr. Sarwal hopes to develop a non-invasive test, such as a blood or urine sample, to detect if a patient is having an acute rejection episode, if it is a good or bad episode, and what the treatment should be. The goal would be to predict rejection long before the cells come in that infiltrate the organs and cause significant injury. Dr. Sarwal says prevention would be the best form of treatment. The new gene test could give those warning signs. A particular group of genes is very predictive of acute rejection. Dr. Sarwal says her dream would be to, "be able to get a urine sample from patients, to be able to call them, and to be able to adjust the immuno-suppression to what they actually need, and thus avoid anti-rejection coming in at all." She says, "I think in that sense, we're going to be able to add years back to the life of these organs."
Robert Dicks
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford
700 Welch Rd.
Suite 310 A
Palo Alto, CA 94304
(650) 497-8364
Copyright © 2005 Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc.
|
|
|
|
REVERSING SCLERODERMA
A risky treatment could be the answer for patients with serious forms of this disease. 
COLONOSCOPY-NOT JUST FOR COLON CANCER
A virtual colonoscopy detects a wide range of diseases outside the colon, which could save lives. June is national Scleroderma Awareness Month!
CLEARER MRI
A new invention helps doctors get clearer images of people who can't lie still.
HELP FOR BLOOD PRESSURE
An investigational device could help patients with this condition stay healthier.
SEEING THE HEART IN 3D
Researchers in the Netherlands are using virtual reality to see the heart like never before.
PANCREATIC CANCER VACCINE
A vaccine increases survival for patients with this deadly form of cancer.
NEW HELP FOR ALCOHOLICS
People who suffer from addiction may have a new option in the form of a pill.
TREATING URINARY INCONTINENCE
A sling helps women with this common problem find relief.
ROBOT REHAB FOR STROKE
A new robot is helping stroke patients recover without a therapist.
STEM CELLS HEAL HEARTS
Donor stem cells may be the answer for patients who suffer a heart attack.
BREATHING WITH EMPHYSEMA
A new, nonsurgical procedure could help patients breathe more easily.
DOPPLER PREDICTS STROKE
The same technology used to forecast a storm is helping doctors understand strokes and migraines.
BETTER BYPASS SURGERY
Cutting-edge technology allows doctors to fix a coronary bypass operation while the patient is still in surgery.
BETTER KIDNEY TRANSPLANT TREATMENT
A new treatment could reduce the risk of rejection within six months of a transplant.
WRAPPING RADIATION AROUND TUMORS
New technology allows doctors to target tumors with better precision.
CUTTING-EDGE SURGERY EDUCATION
Huge monitors and microscopic cameras are making it easier for surgeons to teach residents complicated procedures.
LUNG CANCER VACCINE
A vaccine under study offers hope for some patients who are diagnosed with this deadly cancer.
EASIER COLON CANCER TEST
A blood test may be the future in screening for colon cancer.
STEM CELLS FIGHT LUPUS
Using a patient's own stem cells could provide a cure for this devastating disease.
NEW SINUS RELIEF WITH A BALLOON
A new technique pushes sinus blockages out of the way and results in less pain.
HUNTINGTON'S HELP
A drug already approved in Europe and Canada could offer hope to patients who are plagued by this disease.
INHALED CHEMO
A new twist on standard chemotherapy offers less side effects and better precision.
STRENGTHENING BRITTLE BONES
A drug to treat osteoporosis is helping patients with a disease that weakens their bones.
BIRD FLU: BE PREPARED
Find out what you can do to prepare for the flu that experts think will hit the states in the coming months.
|
Send email to news@wchstv.com for information or comments concerning WCHS-TV Eyewitness News.
