<p>After doctors reconfigured her immune system, an eight-year-old girl of Indian descent was named the first patient in the history of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to have a transplant without the need for ongoing medication on Friday.<img decoding=”async” class=”alignnone wp-image-196450″ src=”https://www.theindiaprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/theindiaprint.com-f6ng0xaxyaaz4il-1695414979724-1695414985687-11zon.jpg” alt=”theindiaprint.com f6ng0xaxyaaz4il 1695414979724 1695414985687 11zon” width=”1183″ height=”666″ srcset=”https://www.theindiaprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/theindiaprint.com-f6ng0xaxyaaz4il-1695414979724-1695414985687-11zon.jpg 549w, https://www.theindiaprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/theindiaprint.com-f6ng0xaxyaaz4il-1695414979724-1695414985687-11zon-390×220.jpg 390w, https://www.theindiaprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/theindiaprint.com-f6ng0xaxyaaz4il-1695414979724-1695414985687-11zon-150×84.jpg 150w” sizes=”(max-width: 1183px) 100vw, 1183px” title=”In the UK, an eight-year-old child of Indian descent makes medical history 18″></p>
<p>A stem cell transplant was performed on Aditi Shankar, who had a rare genetic disease, using bone marrow provided by her mother Divya, who also gave a kidney.</p>
<p>Aditi’s replacement kidney now functions without the need for ongoing immunosuppressant medication to prevent her body from rejecting it thanks to the innovative procedure performed at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London.</p>
<p>According to Professor Stephen Marks, Clinical Lead for Renal Transplantation at GOSH and Professor of Paediatric Nephrology and Transplantation at University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, this is the first patient he has cared for in 25 years who did not require immunosuppression after receiving a kidney transplant.</p>
<p>According to him, “We hope that our research will give more kids, like Aditi, for whom kidney transplantation was not previously an option, the option to have a life-changing kidney transplant.”</p>
<p>The doctors claim that this was made feasible because Aditi needed bone marrow from her mother six months prior to a kidney transplant since she had a severe case of irreversible renal failure.</p>
<p>In order for her transplanted organ to not assault Aditi’s body, this reconfigured her immune system to be identical to that of her donor kidney.</p>
<p>“Aditi’s energies had been depleted by dialysis during the previous three years. Almost immediately after her kidney transplant, we noticed a significant improvement in her energy levels. We take our organs for granted, yet we all possess such a gift, according to Aditi’s father, Uday Shankar.</p>
<p>“She has been constrained by a Hickman line for the last three years, a tube that administers treatments and draws blood straight from a vein. All she wanted was for her line to go so she could go splash in the water. She has just begun taking swimming lessons, he said.</p>
<p>Immunosuppressant drugs are often prescribed to organ transplant patients for the duration of their kidney transplant. By using the same donor for both the bone marrow and kidney transplants, the immune system is rewired to become a match for the new kidney, greatly minimizing the risks of rejection.</p>
<p>Aditi’s treatment success, the first of her kind in the UK, is anticipated to spur more research into the potential benefits of treating more critically sick children and adults with kidney failure and other illnesses with a bone marrow transplant followed by a kidney transplant from the same live donor.</p>
<p>However, the dangers involved with a double transplant are higher than those of a standard kidney transplant, therefore specialists indicated this would only be for very sick patients who have no other option.</p>
<p>The teams had to sort through the case’s scientific, ethical, and practical issues using all of their knowledge and some creative thinking. We are very thrilled to celebrate this triumph with Aditi and her family and are ecstatic to see how well she is doing. According to Dr. Giovanna Lucchini, a bone marrow transplant expert, and Dr. Austen Worth, an immunology consultant, “we are already working to see how this breakthrough can underpin further research to help more families.”</p>
<p>The biggest center in the UK for pediatric stem cell and kidney transplants, Great Ormond Street Hospital also takes the lead on related research initiatives.</p>
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