Mohammed Ahmed, nearly five, was born with a very weak immune system. A bone-marrow transplant is the only known treatment, but he was on a very long transplant waiting list. When he came down with the swine flu in 2011 at the age of only one, doctors knew his only chance for survival would be an experimental bone-marrow transplant… using bone-marrow that wasn’t a match to his.
Rejection organs and organic materials is a serious risk among transplant patients. Even in cases of matching transplants, the body can still reject the transplant if the tissue is not 100% perfectly matched.
Mohammed’s father, Jamil, agreed to act as a donor, even though his bone-marrow did not match his son’s. Using a brand new method of modifying immune cells (referred to as “T-cells”), the lab was able to create a sort of “self-destruct” option to kill off transplanted cells in Mohammed’s body the case of the donated cells being either rejected, which could result in a deadly viral infection.
By a great stroke of luck, the self-destructing option was not necessary. Mohammed’s body accepted the mismatched donor cells and, despite still needing regular medical checkups, his health has greatly improved.
This new approach to tissue transplants gives patients a far greater chance for successful transplants in the future, especially given how rare it is for a patient to find a matching donor within their family. In time, we can hope that we will live in an age where patents requiring a bone-marrow transplant will no longer need to watch their own health deteriorate while waiting on a list.
Photo courtesy of BBC News Online.
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