The research is supported by São Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP and has been partially conducted at the Optics and Photonics Research Center (CEPOF), hosted by the University of São Paulo (USP) at São Carlos in São Paulo State (Brazil).
"This biophotonic technique is revolutionary, as it helps avoid the transmission of diseases during organ transplantation," said Vanderlei Bagnato, Full Professor at the University of São Paulo, Director of its São Carlos Physics Institute (IFSC-USP), and principal investigator for CEPOF, one of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) supported by FAPESP.
Bagnato - Group - Researchers - University - Toronto
Bagnato's group partnered with researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada, which has the world's largest lung transplantation program, having performed 197 such surgeries in 2018 alone. According to the thoracic surgeon Marcelo Cypel, who heads the service, the number of transplants could be higher if organs could be decontaminated, especially when the prospective donor has a chronic viral infection such as hepatitis C.
"Ten patients have so far been tested [using the biophotonic therapy]," Cypel said. "The new technique significantly reduced transplant organ viral load in eight of these patients. The procedure all but eliminated the virus in two others."
Method - Article - Inactivating - Hepatitis - C
The method described in the article ("Inactivating hepatitis C virus in donor lungs using light therapies during normothermic ex vivo lung perfusion") involves ultraviolet and red light irradiation to reduce viral and bacterial loads in infected organs to prevent the transmission of diseases such as hepatitis to transplant recipients.
In addition to FAPESP, the research was also funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation, and Brazil's National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).
Bagnato - Technique - Lungs - Livers - Kidneys
According to Bagnato, the technique was initially developed to treat lungs but is being adapted for livers and kidneys. "This should greatly improve postoperative conditions for transplant recipients," he said....
(Excerpt) Read more at: ScienceDaily