In May, Dr Fungai Dengu (DPhil, PhD Candidate, Transplant Surgery, University of Oxford) and Dr. Hussain Abbas (DPhil, Transplant Surgery, University of Oxford) represented Santersus AG in the 2024 International Congress of ILTS, held in Houston (Texas, USA).
The main presentation, which got featured in the best of basic science session, investigated the ability of our selective therapeutic cell-free DNA/NET device, called NucleoCapture, to optimize DCD donor livers by removing the extracellular histones during NMP and following whole blood reperfusion in ex-situ porcine model.
The study concluded that DAMP removal via Nucelocapture™ is achievable during both NMP and reperfusion by either connecting the spectra Optia device to the OrganOx metra™ device OR the continuous in-line NucleoCapture hemoperfusion column prototype.
Furthermore, Nucelocapture™ during initial NMP, employed to tackle ex-situ reperfusion induced by DAMPs in the circuit seems to have a beneficial effect on liver function during perfusion and subsequent allogenic whole-blood reperfusion.
Additionally, Dr. Fungai and Dr. Hussain presented a poster related to another recent study, carried out by Santersus that investigated the presence of circulating NETs prior to ECD organ retrieval and during 48-hour normothermic perfusions of discarded human livers.
This study provided mechanistic insights into donor and preservation related injury/inflammation and demonstrated that removal of NETs using during retrieval (DBD and during dcd-NRP), ex-situ perfusion and recipient reperfusion may mitigate complications associated with transplantation of ECD livers through application of NucleoCapture.