Revolutionary 'blood' HBOC-201 saves Tamara Coakley

A REVOLUTIONARY synthetic blood - straight out of science fiction - has saved the life of a Victorian woman.

Doctors at The Alfred brought Tamara Coakley, 33, back from the brink of death after a horrific car crash left her with severe blood loss and dangerously close to heart failure.

This was the first reported case of the synthetic blood reversing cardiac hypoxia and anaemia in a trauma patient.

A last-ditch effort to save Mrs Coakley's life led to 10 units of the haemoglobin-based oxygen carrier, called HBOC-201 to be flown in from the US.

It contains a molecule derived from cow's blood and restored the level of haemoglobin in her blood, which carries oxygen to the tissues.

Trauma service director Dr Mark Fitzgerald said it marked an important step in developing a viable blood alternative to address world blood supply shortages.

Unlike donor blood it does not require matching and can be stored without refrigeration for up to three years- making it suitable for use in a rural settings or on the battlefield.

"It's a bit of science fiction," Dr Fitzgerald said.

"Currently only one in 30 people give blood, but one in three will need it.

"What we would eventually like to see is synthetic blood products to be available in remote areas of Australia and in the Defence Forces when people don't have any other option."

As a Jehovah's Witness, Mrs Coakley was unable to have whole blood transfusions, but was permitted to accept blood substitutes.

Dr Fitzgerald was familiar with the product, which is being developed by the US Navy, because he gave independent advice on a proposed research project five years ago.

Working through the night he negotiated with the drug's manufacturer, OPK Biotech, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service and airline carriers.

The Alfred's ethics committee approved the import, permission was granted under the TGA's special access scheme and the manufacturer picked up the tab.

Within 48 hours, the blood product had arrived in Melbourne and five units (2350ml) were painstakingly administered over two days.

Despite a few close calls, including high temperatures and pneumonia, Mrs Coakley's haemoglobin levels more than doubled.

HBOC-201 is one of several blood substitutes being developed around the world.

University of Melbourne Paediatrics Department head Prof Paul Monagle said synthetic blood could relieve donor supply issues and give people in remote areas access to life-saving treatment.

"The other issue is storage," he said.

"If you could make a synthetic blood with a long shelf life and it was portable you could carry it with you."

But any synthetic blood product would have to be rigorously tested before it moved from working prototype to routine practice.

Mrs Coakley, who was in an induced coma during the medical procedure, knows how close she came to death in the October crash.

She was overwhelmed by the lengths to which Dr Fitzgerald went to save her life and respect her personal choices.

"In a hospital setting you wouldn't get a person in this situation where they are forced to try something new," Mrs Coakley said.

"I'm glad something positive could come out of it. They did everything they could. I am so grateful for that."

Source: HeraldSun

New technique for regenerating blood vessels to aid treatment of vascular disease

A new technique for regenerating blood vessels has implications for victims of coronary artery disease

Researchers at the University of Western Ontario have discovered a new strategy for helping the body make blood vessels in vulnerable or damaged tissue. The approach, which has implications for the treatment of victims of coronary artery disease, involves the use of a protein named fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9) to assist the "supporting" cells of new blood vessels as they are formed by the body.

Existing biological strategies of 'therapeutic angiogenesis' that aim to promote the regeneration of the patients own blood vessels have focused on the endothelial or lining cells of the artery wall.

"Unfortunately and despite considerable investigation, therapeutic angiogenesis has not as yet been found to be beneficial to patients with coronary artery disease," says Cardiologist Dr. Geoffrey Pickering, who developed the strategy in collaboration with Mathew Frontini at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. "It appears that new blood vessels that form using approaches to date do not last long, and may not have the ability to control the flow of blood into the areas starved of oxygen."

The key innovation of the strategy of Pickering's research group is to pay more attention to the "supporting" cells of the vessel wall. FGF9 has the effect of stimulating the supporting cells in wrapping around the fragile walls of the vessels. The team found that by activating the supporting cells in mice, new vessels did not 'shrivel' and disappear but instead lasted over a year. Another advantage of the new strategy is that the redeveloped vessels were found to be surrounded by smooth muscle cells which enabled them to constrict and relax, ensuring the correct amount of blood and with it, oxygen, get to the tissues which require it so urgently.

With heart attacks and strokes being a leading cause of death, the implications of this research are far reaching.

Source: Gizmag

BLOOD: Improving Crime Scene Analysis Forensic Techniques

Lauren Burke/Getty Images

The aftermath of violent crimes is nothing like what we see on TV, says Stephen Morgan, a forensic analytic chemist. “Crime scenes are messy, chaotic. There’s a lot to look at.” Too much, in fact. What’s needed are methods to simplify the forensic process without damaging evidence at the scene. These three breakthroughs will do just that.

Where

Investigators use spray-on reagents to locate blood spatter that’s too small to see. But chemicals can contaminate evidence or give false positives. Stephen Morgan and Michael Myrick of the University of South Carolina have developed an infrared camera system that exposes microscopic traces of blood without using chemicals. The device targets blood proteins, which remain long after visible blood has been wiped away, filtering background infrared to reveal blood residue that can’t be seen with the naked eye.

How

Detectives use spatter reconstructions to piece together what a crime might have looked like as it happened. Typically, investigators pin string from blood stains to a possible point of origin, but this method overlooks the fact that blood drops arc through the air. Forensic-surveying engineer Ursula Buck and her team at the University of Bern in Switzerland use laser scanners and imaging software to re-create accurate spatter trajectories. First, digital photographs of the crime scene are stitched into a panorama that shows blood-stain size and location, while the laser scanner creates a 3-D rendering of the room. The mass of each droplet is then calculated based on the size of the stain. Finally, using an algorithm developed by the Swiss team, every drop of blood has its path re-created, no string attached.

Who

Forensic scientists had no reliable method for establishing age using blood samples before last November, when Manfred Kayser and his colleagues at Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands announced that they had developed a process to determine age, plus or minus nine years. The test examines white blood cells called T cells by looking for the snippets of DNA that form inside newly made T cells as they fight infections. As we age, our bodies create fewer T cells (a reason the elderly are more susceptible to colds). The more of these DNA snippets, the younger the perp. “Police are desperate to get information,” Kayser says. “We’re mining human biology to give them a new tool.”

Source: Popsci

Polymer Cloak Gives Blood Cells Anonymity, Possibly Allowing Universal Transfusions

Anyone who has ever donated blood has learned his or her blood type, such as AB, O negative, etc., which will be matched to a recipient with the same blood type. If blood types do not match, a recipient’s immune system could reject the transfusion, a potentially fatal proposition. But a new method masks the type of donated red blood cells, possibly eliminating the need to test types and making it easier to give and receive blood.
There are eight common blood types, based on four major groups, which classify red blood cells based on antigens that are found on the cells’ surface. Foreign antigens can trigger a serious immune response. Type A has only the A antigen, Type B has the B antigen, and so on.


People with type O blood are considered universal donors, because they have neither A nor B antigens on their red cells, so a recipient’s body would be less likely to reject the blood.

The new method masks the antigens so there would be no immune response. It involves cloaking individual blood cells inside polymer shells, which hide the cells’ identity from the immune system. But oxygen can still penetrate the shell, allowing the cell to do its job.

Scientists have long tried to create an all-purpose red blood cell, one that doesn’t rely on typing tests or the kindness of donors with just the right type. Other efforts have involved polymers that canbehave like blood, and DARPA has been funding research into blood pharming, which involves genetically engineering an organism to produce large quantities of synthetic blood.

Turning blood banks into universal stockpiles could be another solution. The study appears in the journal Biomacromolecules. Source:Popsci