Scientists are developing artificial blood that could save lives in emergencies : Shots
Scientists work to develop artificial blood that can be available for doctors to be used in an emergency when ordinary blood is not available.
Eli Meir Kaplan for NPR
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Eli Meir Kaplan for NPR
Tens of thousands of people bleed to death each year in the United States before they can go to the hospital. Indeed, ambulances, medical helicopters and military doctors cannot regularly carry blood, which would go badly too quickly without adequate refrigeration.
Scientists were therefore looking for to develop artificial blood which could be stored in the form of powder and reconstituted by doctors on site to save lives.
At the University of Maryland of Maryland in Baltimore, where some of this research is underway, a white rabbit is on the ground of a cage. It is in a “special intensive care unit that we created for our resuscitation of rabbit”, explains Dr. Allan Doctor, school scientist.
The doctor’s team has just emptied the animal’s blood to simulate what happens to a person who bleeds from an injury, such as a car accident or a battlefield injury.
“This rabbit is always in shock. You can see that he is lying very motionless. It is as if he were at the scene of an accident,” said the doctor. “If we haven’t done anything, he would die.”
Dr. Allan Doctor directs artificial research in the blood at the Center for Blood Oxygen Transport and Hemostasis at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. He also co -founded a company, Kalocyte, to develop the blood substitute.
Eli Meir Kaplan for NPR
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Eli Meir Kaplan for NPR
But the doctor and his team will save this rabbit today. They will fill his veins with something they hope will finally allow them to achieve a goal that has thwarted researchers for decades: developing safe and effective artificial blood.
“Good rabbit,” explains Danielle Waters, technician in the doctor’s team, while she slowly raises the rabbit and begins to infuse her with three large artificial blood syringes.
The doctor’s team is synthetic blood from hemoglobin, the protein that nourishes the body with oxygen. The researchers extract hemoglobin from expired blood and enclose the protein in a grease bubble, essentially creating artificial red blood cells.
The protective bubble is innovation which, according to the doctor, will solve the security problems caused by other attempts to do synthetic blood. These other efforts have also used hemoglobin, but exposed hemoglobin can be toxic to organs, he says.
“We have to veil hemoglobin inside a cell. It is an artificial cell that makes it sure and effective,” said the doctor.
Scientists then get up with the artificial red blood cells in a powder that can remain good until an emergency.
“It is designed so that for the moment it is necessary, a doctor can mix it with water and in one minute, you have blood,” said the doctor.
“It is stable for years, and it can be easily transported. And therefore the fact is that you can give a transfusion on the scene of an accident,” explains Doctor.
Stop avoidable deaths
Lyophilized artificial blood developed in the doctor’s laboratory can be reconstructed with water and infused in an animal test subject. In the end, the research team hopes to test this in people, using products derived from human red blood cells.
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Eli Meir Kaplan for NPR
In addition to using emergency medicine, military doctors could also use artificial blood to save injured soldiers. The Ministry of Defense spends more than $ 58 million to help finance a consortium that develops the doctor’s synthetic blood, as well as other components that allow coagulation and maintain blood pressure.
“Cause n ° 1 of avoidable deaths on the battlefield is still a hemorrhage,” said Colonel Jeremy Pampelin, project manager of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. “This is a real problem for the military and for the civil world.”
The doctor is optimistic that his team could be about to solve this problem with his artificial red blood cells, nicknamed Erythrome. The doctor co -founded Kalocyte to develop blood and sits on the board of directors and as a scientific director of the company.
“We were able to successfully summarize all the functions of blood which are important for resuscitation in a system that can be stored for years at room temperature and be used on the scene of an accident,” he said.
Promising results in animal tests
Scientist Ruby McASlan is working on the purification of hemoglobin in the Kalocyte cold room at the Center for Blood Oxygen Transport and Hemostasis at the Medical School of the University of Maryland.
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Back in the laboratory, Waters made the infusion of the three bottles of synthetic blood in the rabbit after about 10 minutes.
“My God, Bunny, you did,” she said, taking him back in her cage. “So.”
Almost immediately, a monitor following the vital signs of the rabbit shows that its heart rate, its blood pressure and other important measures have recovered from nearly normal death. He begins to regain normal behavior, like moving alone and drinking water.
“The very good sign is that he is very pink,” said the doctor. “His eyes are pink. His ears are pink. It is a good sign, he has a lot of oxygen in his blood and he is effectively distributed. He breathes comfortably and calm. It is incredible at what speed it can work.”
The doctor’s team has tested its artificial blood on hundreds of rabbits and so far it looks safe and effective.
“This would change the way we could take care of people who bleed outside hospitals,” said the doctor. “It would be transformer.”
Like the other rabbits used in these experiments, this animal will later be euthanized so that researchers can perform a necropsy to ensure that artificial blood has caused no damage to fabric or organ.
Human trials to come
While the results so far seem to be a cause of optimism, the doctor says that he still has to prove to the Food and Drug Administration that his artificial blood would be safe and effective for people.
But he hopes to start testing him in humans within two years. A Japanese team is already testing similar synthetic blood in people.
“I have a lot of hope,” said the doctor.
Other experts remain cautious. Many promising attempts to create artificial blood have finally turned out to be dangerous.
“I think it’s a reasonable approach,” said Tim Estep, Chart Biotech Consulting scientist who consults companies developing artificial blood.
“But because this area has been so difficult, the proof will be in clinical trials,” he adds. “Although I am generally optimistic, placing a bet on any technology at the moment is generally difficult.”
