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Biotech / Medical : Biotransplant(BTRN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Arthur Radley who wrote (1261)	2/27/2002 4:26:42 PM
From: nigel bates	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1475

BOSTON--(BW HealthWire)--Feb. 27, 2002-- Scientists at Immerge BioTherapeutics Inc. (a BioTransplant Incorporated (Nasdaq:BTRN - news)/Novartis Pharma AG (NYSE:NYS - news) joint venture company) announced today that they have identified miniature swine that failed to produce porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV) that can infect human cells in laboratory tests. The potential for PERV to infect humans has been a key safety concern for scientists who are developing pigs for xenotransplantation (the use of animal organs and tissue to treat human diseases). Unlike other viruses, which can be eliminated either through breeding or raising pigs in a clean lab environment, multiple copies of PERV form part of the normal genomic DNA of pigs and are therefore passed from one generation to the next. The study appears in the March 2002 issue (Volume 76, Issue #6) of the Journal of Virology. ``This is an important study because past research has shown that PERV released from some pig cells can infect human cells in-vitro,'' said Clive Patience Ph.D. Associate Director, Immerge BioTherapeutics Inc., and lead investigator of this study. ``Although the use of porcine tissues has tremendous potential to alleviate the shortage of donor organs, the inadvertent transmission of PERV to organ recipients has been a major safety concern.'' In this study, Dr. Patience et al. characterize three sub-classes of PERV (A, B and C) that are found in the herd of inbred miniature swine. Following repeat testing on up to four occasions, results showed that families of animals could be identified that possesses a consistent non-transmitting phenotype. In addition, it is possible that replication competent PERV-A viruses may not be present in the genomic DNA of these miniature swine, as only recombinations between PERV-A and PERV-C were identified within infected human cells...