After the transplant, even a glass of water tastes different
Two kidney transplants in Bologna after around thirteen years on the waiting list. Roberto and Maria Chiara’s story and the role of an experimental drug.
For Roberto Mazzotti, a pizza maker from Ravenna, the difference hits home when he reaches for a glass of water. After years of dialysis, he says he can now drink without wondering every time whether he can. It is the detail he chose to explain what has changed since he received a kidney at Sant’Orsola Hospital in Bologna.
Maria Chiara Negri also received a kidney at Sant’Orsola. According to the transplant centre, both patients had been on the waiting list for around thirteen years. They had antibodies that could react against tissue from many potential donors. So even when a kidney became available, the chances of a match were very low.
What made the two transplants possible?
As Gaetano La Manna, director of the Sant’Orsola Kidney Transplant Centre, explained, the team gave the patients an experimental drug called cizutamig on a compassionate-use basis before their transplants. The drug targets the cells that make antibodies involved in rejection. In both patients, levels of those antibodies fell, improving their chances of finding a compatible kidney. That made it possible for both patients to have a transplant.
At the presentation on 4 November 2026, Sant’Orsola reported that both transplanted kidneys were working well several months after surgery and that both patients were in excellent clinical condition. The centre described the findings as preliminary. They concern these two cases.
