Many of you wonder if we will see a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 soon.  Given the fact that the virus has been genetically mapped and the disease caused by this virus is rampaging across the planet, the odds are likely.  Note I didn’t say it would be a fully effective vaccine or that it would be perfectly safe.

That’s the problem when folks believe there is a pressing issue to do something- not necessarily the best thing- just to do something.  I do hope between the various firms edging each other to be the firstest with the mostest, one of those vaccine candidates will truly be safe and effective.  (Let us not forget that we have a President who boasts of taking a drug – not approved for this purpose until he leaned on the FDA to approve it- that yields more than 10X the arrythmias and at least 40% more deaths than those who don’t, when using it for COVID-19.)

Which is simply an introduction to the development Dr. Shuvo Roy has been trying to introduce for the past decade.  Yes- decade.  (I first reported this development back in 2010.)

Roy has morphed the project into a national effort, The Kidney Project- but it’s still basically the same concept, just more refined. (Vanderbilt and UC San Francisco are the lead universities behind this development.) The development of an implantable kidney bioreactor (about the size of a deck of cards), along with some ancillary items.

The newest stage has demonstrated the viability of the device- containing human kidney cells- when inserted into pigs.  Oh- no immunosuppressive drugs were needed, either!

That’s great news for the ¾ million Americans (2 million world-wide) treated for ESRD (end-stage renal disease).  Unfortunately, only some 25K donor kidneys become available each year- clearly not enough to deal with this problem. And, even those being treated via dialysis, the 5 year survival rate is about 35%.  Not to mention the dent ESRD puts in the Medicare budget (the US pays for dialysis care after the first year), to the tune of about $ 40 billion a year (about 10% of Medicare’s total annual budget).

Drs. Roy (UCSF) and William Fissel (Vanderbilt) hope this device will terminate the need for dialysis.   With a hemofilter (toxin removal across silicon membranes with nanometer sized pores) and the bioreactor (producing hormones, managing the body’s fluid volume and blood pressure, among other needs) is now ready to undergo it’s first clinical trial in humans.  By avoiding the needs for immunosuppressants (the costs of which are only covered by insurance for 3 years- besides the fact that they compromise the patient’s health) and the need for clot suppressing drugs (like heparin, warfarin, and the lot), this device is showing great promise.

(Note:  It hasn’t earned the trifecta yet- that would be a device powered by the patient’s heart, without batteries and external connections, that cleans the blood without anti-rejections drugs and blood thinners.)

Let’s hope we don’t have to wait too long for Roy’s ‘giant step’ to become the norm. (Especially since we still ban stem cell research!)

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