Artificial blood could be coming to a hospital near you as scientists have taken a significant step toward a medical breakthrough that could save untold numbers of lives.
Japanese researchers have begun clinical trials to assess the efficacy of universal artificial blood, according to NDTV.
In a medical breakthrough that could save millions of lives, Japanese researchers have started clinical trials to explore the effectiveness and safety of universal artificial blood. Led by Professor Hiromi Sakai at Nara Medical University, the artificial blood, usable for all blood types, could have a shelf life of up to two years. If successful, it could transform the emergency medicare system across the globe.
Their approach involves extracting haemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying molecule in red blood cells, from expired donor blood. It is then encased in a protective shell to create stable, virus-free artificial red blood cells, according to a report in Newsweek.
Unlike donated blood, these artificial cells have no blood type, eliminating the need for compatibility testing and making them invaluable in emergencies. Notably, donated blood has a shelf life of just 42 days, and even then, there is not enough of it, and requires compatibility amongst different blood groups.
For the trial, the researchers administered 100 to 400 millilitres of the artificial blood to 16 healthy adult volunteers in March. If the test safety and efficacy are achieved, the researchers are hoping for practical use by 2030, making Japan the first country in the world to deploy artificial blood for real-world medical care.
"The need for artificial blood cells is significant as there is currently no safe substitute for red cells," said Professor Sakai.
Japanese scientists have created artificial blood that works for any blood type.
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It’s made from expired donor blood and can last up to 5 years in the fridge or 2 years on a shelf, unlike regular blood that spoils in just 42 days.
This discovery could be a major breakthrough in… pic.twitter.com/sli4KSh9DI
These advancements are not only being made in Japan. The National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has given a four-year $2.7 million grant to a team at Pennsylvania State University to develop artificial blood, the school announced back in March.
“Our goal is to design and optimize a blood substitute prototype, called Nano-RBC, that is based on a deformable nanoparticle. It is similar in shape to red blood cells and incorporates high-per-particle payloads of hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells responsible for carrying oxygen,” said Dipanjan Pan, the Dorothy Foehr Huck & J. Lloyd Chair Professor in Nanomedicine, who is heading up the team.
He explained that the odds of survival increase dramatically when a person can receive a transfusion before losing too much blood, but that’s often not possible in rural or war-torn areas without the specialized processing and storage facilities donated blood requires.
“There is a need for an artificial oxygen carrier to substitute for banked blood in settings where stored blood is unavailable or undesirable,” Pan said. “Artificial blood is described as the ‘Holy Grail’ of trauma medicine. Researchers have been battling to develop it for 150 years, with many failures along the way.”
The New England Journal of Medicine published the findings of a study in 2018 showing that about 60,000 Americans die from blood loss each year. However, if these advances in technology are successful, this number could see a significant drop.
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