Young blood transfusion

Young blood transfusion refers to transfusing blood specifically from a young person into an older one with the intention of creating a medicinal benefit.[1] The scientific community currently views the practice as little more than snake oil.[1][2]

Research

Research was done on rodents at Stanford University in which blood transfused from young mice seemed to invigorate older mice; the circulatory systems of the mice were connected which put them in a state of parabiosis.[1] Another study at UC Berkeley found that blood from older mice hurt younger mice, with older mice gaining no benefits from blood from younger mice.[3] One problem with the generalizability of parabiosis experiments is that it is unclear whether the benefits come from the blood that is shared or the older mouse using the younger mouse's organs to purify their blood.[1]

In experiments like this, researchers found that some of these mice died quickly (11 out of 69 in one experiment) for reasons the scientists could not explain, but described as possibly some form of rejection.[1] A researcher who coauthored several mouse studies into young blood transfusion, Amy Wagers, has said that her papers do not provide a scientific basis for some of the existing human trials.[2]

Evidence from two large studies in 2017 showed that the transfusion of blood from younger donors to older people led to outcomes that were either no different from, or led to worse outcomes than, blood from older donors.[1][4] Research on blood transfusion outcomes has been complicated by the lack of careful characterization of the transfusion products that have been used in clinical trials; studies had focused on how storage methods and duration might affect blood, but not on the differences among lots of blood themselves.[5]

Commercial development

Ambrosia

A startup company, Ambrosia, has been selling "young blood transfusions" for $8,000 since 2017 under the guise of running a clinical trial, to see if such transfusions lead to changes in the blood of recipients.[1][6] As of August 2017, they had 600 patients.[7] The clinical trial has no control arm so is not randomized and is not blinded.[7] The company was started by Jesse Karmazin, a medical school graduate without a license to practice medicine.[8] David Wright is the licensed doctor overseeing the clinical trial; in his practice he gives intravenous treatments of vitamins and antibiotics for "non traditional" purposes, and was disciplined by the California Medical Board for the latter in 2015. A bioethicist from McGill suggests that Ambrosia is running this trial as they would be unable to get FDA approval to sell this treatment otherwise.[8]

Alkahest

Another company, Alkahest, was started based on the Stanford rodent studies, and as of 2017 was collaborating with European pharmaceutical company, Grifols, to create a blood plasma-based experimental biologic drug which they propose to test on people with Alzheimer's.[6][9]

Young Blood Institute

As of 2018 another organization, the Young Blood Institute, was promoting young blood transfusion. Like Ambrosia's, its trial had no control, and charged the participants for entry, in this case $285,000 per person.[2]

Dipnarine Maharaj was running the trial; he has offered both traditional treatments and nontraditional treatments such as stem cell banking in the past.[2] Additionally, he has ties to the Hippocrates Health Institute, an organization promoting unproven alternative medicine.[10] The Young Blood Institute's trial has been promoted by Bill Faloon,[2] who founded the Life Extension Foundation,[11] which was raided by the FDA In 1987 for illegally importing medicine in a later-dropped case.[12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Novella, Steven (3 August 2016). "Parabiosis – The Next Snakeoil". Science-Based Medicine.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Robbins, Rebecca (March 2, 2018). "Young-Blood Transfusions Are on the Menu at Society Gala". Scientific American. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  3. ↑ Regalado, Antonio. "Old blood is bad for young mice—like, really bad". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2018-06-10.
  4. ↑ Garraud, O (August 2017). "Younger blood from older donors: Admitting ignorance and seeking stronger data and clinical trials?". Transfusion and apheresis science : official journal of the World Apheresis Association : official journal of the European Society for Haemapheresis. 56 (4): 635–636. doi:10.1016/j.transci.2017.07.002. PMID 28780993.
  5. ↑ Ning, S; Heddle, NM; Acker, JP (January 2018). "Exploring donor and product factors and their impact on red cell post-transfusion outcomes". Transfusion medicine reviews. 32 (1): 28–35. doi:10.1016/j.tmrv.2017.07.006. PMID 28988603.
  6. 1 2 de Magalhães, JP; Stevens, M; Thornton, D (November 2017). "The Business of Anti-Aging Science". Trends in Biotechnology. 35 (11): 1062–1073. doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2017.07.004. PMID 28778607.
  7. 1 2 Haynes, Gavin (21 August 2017). "Ambrosia: the startup harvesting the blood of the young". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  8. 1 2 Maxmen, Amy. "This startup takes cash from aging adults in exchange for young people's blood". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  9. ↑ Drew, L (27 September 2017). "Neuroscience: The power of plasma". Nature. 549 (7673): S26–S27. doi:10.1038/549S26a. PMID 28953857.
  10. ↑ "The Hippocrates Health Institute: Cancer quackery finally under the spotlight, but will it matter?". Science-Based Medicine. 2015-02-23. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  11. ↑ Funcheon, Deirdra (2015-05-12). "South Florida Church Pursues Eternal Life Through Cryonics, Inflaming Critics and the IRS". Miami New Times. Retrieved 2018-06-10.
  12. ↑ Almond, Steven (1994-06-08). "They're Gonna Live Forever". Miami New Times. Retrieved 2018-06-09.

Further reading

  • Makin, Simon (21 April 2017). "Fountain of Youth? Young Blood Infusions "Rejuvenate" Old Mice". Scientific American. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
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