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Comment by huytersd | Hacker News Reader

It doesn’t mention the most important thing. Does he have to take immunosuppressants? If so is it for the rest of his life.

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I don’t feel like that’s the most important thing. If we can farm kidneys for folks with kidney failure, rather than rely on a combination of the kindness of live donors and harvesting organs from corpses, it will be a huge step forward, even if recipients still need immunosuppressants (as they do with human organs).

I do wonder if the immunosuppressants for cross-species organs have to be stronger/nastier than for intra-species organs though.

I didn’t realize you had to take lifelong immunosuppressants with human organs as well. That makes this indistinguishable, provided it keeps working.

I'm curious, when did you think patients had to take immunosuppressants?

There's also a number of autoimmune diseases out there...

Immunosuppressants are very commonly used for various diseases that are caused by overreactions or undesired reactions of your immune system. Glucocorticoids, for example, are very widespread for all sorts of stuff (rashes, asthma, allergies, inflammations, ...). Monoclonal antibodies are also getting popular as a way to treat allergic reactions by means such as "killing" your IgE antibodies (They're basically antibodies that, in this instance, are used against your own body's antibodies).

Autoimmune diseases like lupus

Anyone who gets a transplant needs to take immunosuppressants for the rest of their life (except some older patients with liver transplants many years post transplant).

In general for many patients, immunosuppressants have relatively little impact on daily life.

Source: liver transplant recipient.

Many immunosuppressed patients will disagree. Viruses hit harder and can often require antibiotics (not a good idea long term). And Covid/Flu/Noro is a constant risk to immunosuppressed people.

Source: son of a transplant patient.

It does at the end of the article: "The procedure was performed under a Food and Drug Administration protocol known as a compassionate use provision, which is granted to patients with life-threatening illness who might benefit from an unapproved treatment. New drugs to suppress the immune system and prevent rejection of the organ were also used under the protocol."

It does mention that? Read the whole article.

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