Metabolite reprogramming observed in donor hearts after circulatory death and prior to transplant suggests exciting possibility for improved biomarkers to assess DCD heart quality.
FRAMINGHAM, Mass., June 5, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Olaris, Inc., a precision medicine company leveraging metabolomics and machine learning to discover and develop its myOLARIS™ diagnostics products, is pleased to announce that the company's study on the metabolic changes occurring in donor hearts after Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD) heart transplant has been selected for a poster presentation on June 5th at the upcoming American Transplant Congress (ATC) 2023 Annual Meeting, to be held June 3rd-7th in San Diego, CA.
The ATC 2023 presentation will describe data from a multi-year collaboration between Olaris and an elite team of heart transplant surgeons and researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, including Drs. Seyed Alireza Rabi, and Asishana Osho. The collaboration was formed with the goal of identifying biomarkers of heart damage due to ischemia and reperfusion during DCD heart transplant. DCD followed by ex vivo machine perfusion, in which organs are procured following circulatory death and placed on a machine to maintain viable status before transplant, represents a new method in heart transplant. Currently, over 3,000 Americans on the heart transplant waiting list each year are unable to access life-saving transplants due to a shortage in donor organs; using DCD for heart transplant has the potential to increase the number of available organs by over 30%, but improved measurements of heart quality are needed to improve DCD outcomes.
"Discovering biomarkers to aid us in maximizing the identification of appropriate hearts for transplant will be crucial to allow DCD to reach its full potential. The research that is ongoing at MGH and Olaris represents an exciting step forward in that direction," said Dr. David D'Alessandro, the Surgical Director of Heart Transplantation and Ventricular Assist Devices at MGH.
To better understand the changes occurring in the heart during DCD transplant, Olaris' researchers examined changes in metabolites in 19 hearts during the DCD process, comparing metabolite levels after heart procurement to those after hours of machine perfusion. They found that several metabolites were consistently altered over time, reflecting metabolic reprogramming in the DCD hearts during machine perfusion. The results of the study identify metabolites and metabolic pathways which could be targeted for therapeutic benefit to preserve heart quality during perfusion or provide novel biomarkers of DCD heart quality for transplant decision-making.
"We are very excited by the data coming out of the study we performed with our partners at MGH. We believe that this is another example of how metabolomics coupled with the Olaris CEREBRO platform can be used to benefit patients, expand access to lifesaving treatments, and allow for better treatment decisions and outcomes," said Dr. Elizabeth O'Day, CEO and Founder of Olaris.
For more information on the ATC meeting or to view the Olaris presentation during the conference, visit https://atcmeeting.org/. The presentation will be made available on Olaris' website at http://www.myolaris.com/news following the conference.
About Olaris
Olaris is on a mission to revolutionize how diseases are diagnosed and treated. By leveraging our CEREBRO platform (Comprehensive Early Responsive Evaluation of Biomarkers Related to Outcomes), which combines metabolomics and machine learning, we harness the power of the body's own communication system to discover and develop our pipeline of myOLARIS™ precision diagnostics. To learn more, visit https://www.myolaris.com/
Media Contact
Keri Sheehan, Olaris, 1 6178723813, [email protected]
SOURCE Olaris
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