A major drive to develop freeze-dried synthetic blood has been announced in the USA.
The project is being backed by a grant of US$2.7 million from the National Institute of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Researchers plan a blood substitute prototype based on a deformable nanoparticle. Known as Nano-RBC, it would be similar in shape to red blood cells and would incorporate high loads of haemoglobin.
The product would be especially useful in rural areas or war settings where access to stored, donated blood is difficult, the researchers say.
The project will build on previous work that led to a substance called ErythroMer, which emulates the physiological properties of red blood cells, including the ability to bind and release oxygen.
The researchers say the new project will go further by seeking to mimic the physical shape and ability to move of red blood cells. The proposed artificial cells would be a tenth of the size of natural red blood cells. The researchers say this could be more efficient than natural cells at delivering haemoglobin.
Project leader Professor Dipanjan Pan, a professor of materials science and nuclear engineering at Penn State University, USA, said: “There is a need for an artificial oxygen carrier to substitute for banked blood in settings where stored blood is unavailable or undesirable. 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.
“We are taking inspiration from … earlier failures and developing a next-generation functional system that attempts to mimic red blood cell physiological functions.”
Professor Pan added: “The ultimate goal is to develop safe, dried oxygen therapeutics envisioned for use when stored red blood cells are unavailable, undesirable or in short supply. The inventiveness of materials researchers in health and medicine is limitless, and we’re demonstrating that in this ambitious and highly collaborative project.”
Source: Penn State University
Link: https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/27m-nih-grant-fund-next-generation-synthetic-blood
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