An attempt to create 'universal blood' that can be transfused to anyone by converting blood type

by Sam Burriss

There are several types of blood type, such as type A, type B, type O, type AB, but if you have a serious injury or you need a blood transfusion such as during surgery, If suitable blood is not used, aggregation occurs in the body, and in the worst case it may result in death. However, studies have been conducted to convert blood of type A or type B into blood of the O type, making it possible for anyone to transfuse, using the O type blood mechanism " can transfuse to anyone " It is.

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When an emergency medical situation occurs due to a disaster or the like, "O type blood that can be transfused to anyone" is needed to supply blood. Researchers are studying enzymes for converting blood of type A or type B into O type in order to secure such a large amount of O type blood.

A research team led by Steven Wizards, a biochemistry professor at the University of British Columbia, is focusing on this research. Professor Withers said: "We are interested in enzymes that remove A or B antigens from erythrocytes, if we can remove simple sugar-only antigens, convert A or B blood to O type It is possible to do. "Based on this concept, I have been searching for enzymes that can convert blood type so far.

The research team is studying ecology using metagenomics to quickly evaluate enzyme candidates that can be used for blood type conversion. According to Professor Wizards, "By using metagenomics, we can pick up all living organisms from the environment and extract the DNA of these organisms collectively", it is said that enzymes that can investigate and use a wide range of organisms I am revealing what I am looking for. In fact, research has succeeded in sampling the genetic information of millions of microorganisms, and we are looking for genes encoding enzymes that can cleave the sugar residues of E. coli.

Professor Withers and his colleagues focused on organisms that decompose the blood and seemed to have sampled those DNAs but eventually found the "enzyme that can efficiently convert the blood type" that we were looking for from human intestinal bacteria To do. Glycosylated protein called mucin covers the walls in the intestine, but they provide sugar to intestinal bacteria and at the same time they act to help digestion.

Because some of the mucins are very similar in structure to the antigens in blood of type A and type B, researchers study "enzymes used by intestinal bacteria to ingest sugars from mucin" , We have discovered an enzyme that can more efficiently remove A antigen or B antigen in the blood. The enzyme discovered will remove A antigen or B antigen in the blood 30 times more efficiently than before.

At the time of writing, Professor Withers is working with the blood research center of the University of British Columbia to conduct a survey for clinical trials at the stage of validating the enzyme discovered. In addition, the research team aims to create sugar elimination enzymes more efficiently. Professor Withers says, "Of course it is obvious that many clinical trials have to be done to make sure that this enzyme does not give harmful results, but it is clear that this is very promising."

The details of this research result will be announced in the forum held by American Chemical Society . In the following movies, a brief commentary on the concept of converting type A and type B blood into O type and the discovered enzyme is done before presentation.

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