Good day, dear Take in Mind visitors! Today I want to talk about a very interesting and burning topic: Can a blood transfusion prolong life or at least improve the physical condition of an elderly person?
Naturally, we all want to live, if not forever, but at least for 600 years or more as biblical patriarchs. And, of course, we want to be young and healthy like elves from the fairy tales. The historical literature often mentions the transfer of heat and body fluids from young people to the elderly as a possible method of promoting health and prolonging life: For example, sleeping with virgins, drinking-, and bathing in the young men and women blood.
In the 20th century, the idea of transfusing blood components for rejuvenation had received a special development. This issue was especially actively engaged during the 20th and 30th of the last century. I think it is very important to mention the work of the Russian doctor Alexander Bogdanov (1873-1928), a director of the world’s first Institute of Blood Transfusion, who was one of the first to try to scientifically evaluate the anti-aging properties of blood.
Recently, this direction received a new development. In February 2019, several web-sites simultaneously published a warning article. The authors actively urge Americans to stop the practice of the transfusions of young people’s blood, which, as they are informed, may hypothetically help to rejuvenate the body and fight Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and other diseases that usually occur in old age. The articles cited the joint statement of Scott Gottlieb, FDA commissioner, and Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research: “There is no proven clinical benefit of infusion of plasma from young donors to cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent these conditions, and there are risks associated with the use of any plasma product…”
The reason for all this is Ambrosia, the startup founded in 2016 by Stanford Medical School graduate Jesse Karmazin, which offers the transfusions of blood plasma received from young (16-25 years old) donors. The media claimed that during his student practice, Karmazin allegedly drew attention to the fact that patients who received blood transfusions from younger people felt better and recovered faster. Subsequently, this fact provided the background of the Ambrosia business idea. By the way, till now the company has not published the results of its own clinical studies, proving their statements. However, according to Business Insider, the company’s clinics are currently operating in five US cities. The cost of one procedure is from 8 to 12 thousand US dollars. So, despite the FDA warnings against using the company’s services, the company continues to work quietly, and, according to its representatives, there is no shortage of customers.
What scientific findings are used by the Ambrosia founder as its methodological basis? It is well known that with aging, there is a significant decrease in the regenerative properties of the body organs and tissues. The scientists from Stanford University School of Medicine performed a series of very interesting experiments, combining the circulation of two, old and young, mice (so-called heterochronic parabiosis) – please see the details in the works of Conboy et al. Nature. 2005; 433: 760 and Mayack et al. Nature. 2010; 463: 495. The experiments have shown that there are factors in young mouse bloodstream which may activate numerous molecular signaling pathways in the stem cells of the liver, muscle, and nervous systems of an old animal, which, in particular, may lead to a certain increase in tissue regeneration in an elderly organism.
Further research allowed identifying a few of such factors and their age-dependent expression change: for example, decreases in the chemokine CCL11 (Villeda et al. Nature. 2011; 477 (7362): 90) and the growth differentiation factor GDF11 (Egerman et al. Cell Metab. 2015 , 22 (1): 164), as well as increased level of oxytocin (Elabd et al. Nat Commun. 2014; 5: 4082). In other words, these studies have shown that the effect of restoring regenerative functions (even if only partially) can be achieved by regulating the level of certain factors (for example, by injecting a specific factor or its inhibitor). If these mechanisms exist in humans, it will be quite enough to synthesize and inject a specific protein and not undergone a transfusion of expensive blood components (below we will talk about the potential side effects of this procedure).
By the way, oxytocin has been discovered and has been widely used in medicine since 1906 (we kindly ask you to consult a doctor before use). The elevated levels of CCL11 (common in older people) have also been found in the blood of schizophrenic patients and young marijuana users (remember this the next time you smoke).
Now about the downsides: Plasma transfusions can result in transfusion-related adverse events including febrile and allergic transfusion reactions, transfusion-associated dyspnea, hypotensive transfusion reaction, hemolytic transfusion reactions, septic transfusion reaction, transfusion-related acute lung injury, and transfusion-associated circulatory overload. So, you may do your own conclusions.
Briefly about COVID-19 (how such a post could exist without reminding it?) During the spring wave, the physicians seriously discussed the possibility of using plasma transfusions from the recovered patients to treat patients with coronavirus. Unfortunately, a number of studies (eg Ling Li et al. JAMA. 2020 Aug 4; 324 (5): 1-11) have shown that among patients with severe or life-threatening COVID-19, convalescent plasma therapy added to standard treatment, compared with standard treatment alone, did not result in a significant clinical improvement.
Finally, back to Ambrosia company and its ilk. A few words about the kind of religious zeal of those clients who rushed to shell out a lump for a dream. We have before us a “wonderful” example of Scientism: Someone said that transfusion of blood components is a panacea while accompanying his advertising statement with a reference to the allegedly revolutionary works of famous scientists (a well-known move of marketers, we will not talk about the ethical side of the act). And someone, a fanatical adherent of the all-knowledge of Science, who does not think and does not doubt, will not go to look for the above articles (which, by the way, are very easy to find in open Internet resources), will not study at least superficially the issue, but will be ready to throw out a considerable amount for, in at best, a harmless procedure.
It is interesting that the Scientismists who affirm the knowledge of science as a dogma, adhere to militant atheism and reject everything extraordinary, act in exactly the same way as the religious adepts of the Middle Ages: replacing the word of God with the word of a professor at Cambridge or another respected educational institution. As a result, people stop thinking (why, if there is an opinion of such clever specialists!), losing their own, acquired through analysis, opinion. Gradually such “science” leads us instead of progress into a gray medieval frenzy. So, let’s not be surprised if some little child will say to us one day: “But the Emperor hasn’t got anything on”.
Featured image by Arek Socha from Pixabay.
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