Grant: Project Grant

Background: The ABO system includes the A, B, O, and AB groups. The markers for these groups are sugars that 'decorate' our cells and tissues, including our organs. Organ transplants are usually performed only when the transplant recipient and donor are ABO-compatible. Sometimes, in order to provide more donor options and make access to transplants more fair, we want to consider ABO-mismatched donors for transplant candidates. To do this safely, we must measure ABO antibodies in the patient's blood because these antibodies may cause rejection. The only test available to detect ABO antibodies was developed in 1901 and it has many flaws and limitations. It is performed differently from centre to centre and it measures antibodies to red blood cell sugars, not the specific ABO sugars on the organs that we transplant. Goals: We created a new test to measure ABO antibodies by attaching ABO sugars to tiny plastic beads. Antibodies in the patient's blood sample stick to these beads and are detected with a special machine. Our initial results show that this new method is accurate and reliable, creating much excitement in the international transplant community. Our research laboratory can offer this new test but only for a small number of patients; this limitation means that the test is not widely available to all transplant patients. We need to make it easy for transplant programs worldwide to do this test in their own laboratories, which already have all the equipment needed to do this test themselves. We propose to create an 'ABO antibody test kit' for clinical transplant laboratories to test their own transplant patients. Summary: Our new ABO antibody detection test will give patients more opportunities to be transplanted safely and more quickly. The kit proposed in this work will make it possible for transplant programs to run this test in their own local laboratories to offer the quickest and most accurate testing for transplant patients.