Well, This Could Put a Whole New Spin on Vampire Movies

Tuckerfan · Jun 11, 2023

Well, not really, since this is about creating artificial white blood cells, but it does make for an interesting thread title.

Scientists create synthetic blood cells that can be used to kill cancer and superbugs

This is the first time synthetic blood cells have been produced and was only made possible after scientists created tiny skeletons to hold the cells together and prevent them rupturing – an issue which had previously eluded them.

They are not literally blood cells but rather empty cells, the same size as white blood cells, that drugs can be inserted into and can travel through the blood interacting with their surroundings.

“We think this is a very big development and we’re excited by it,” Jonathan Burns, of University College London, told i.

“We want to use our approach to deliver antibiotics locally, like precision weapons, rather than have them spread around the whole body.

“This means we can use less antibiotics as a result, plus we can also use other more toxic antibiotics because we need less of it.”

Initial tests suggest that using these synthetic cells to “turbocharge” drugs will work well. These showed that the skeletons successfully held the cells together in human blood, outside the body, in a lab.

The researchers found that adding synthetic cells loaded with a powerful class of antibiotic, known as meropenem – or Merrem – in a dish in the lab killed the E.coli superbug.

The next phase of the project will begin this week as the researchers carry out tests to see if antibiotic-laden artificial cells can kill the E-Coli superbug in rats. They will then look to test the technique on humans.

Superbugs have developed resistance to mainstream antibiotics because of their overuse in medicine and agriculture.

The World Health Organisation has declared antimicrobial resistance, as it is officially known, as one of the top 10 global public health threats.

This breakthrough could transform the battle against superbugs such as MRSA and E.Coli by enabling antibiotics to be used that they aren’t resistant to.

And administering them in a much more targeted way they won’t wipe out the populations of good bacteria around the body – a significant downside to antibiotic use at the moment.

Scientists predict the new turbocharged synthetic cells would initially be used to help immunosuppressed people to fight off superbugs but in the longer term they could be used against other diseases and by healthier people as well.

They can be produced quickly and cheaply, although they would be more expensive than current antibiotics, Dr Burns said.

They can also be guided with precision by adding miniscule magnetic particles and using a magnet outside the body to move them to the target.

As such, there is considerable potential to improve the effectiveness of a whole range of drugs – from anti-cancer treatments to those for almost every infectious disease – by targeting a small area with a high dose and leaving the rest of the body alone, Dr Burns said.

“We can put almost any drug molecule inside our ‘white blood cells’. Right now we are focused on antimicrobial resistance but we would look to apply this to other conditions in the future, including cancers.

“Cisplatin is normally used in chemotherapy. This is a highly toxic molecule, which is given to the tumour site. But the trouble is it ends up circulating the body as well. And because it’s toxic to the patient they lose their hair, they get really weak and lethargic and often it can be quite a destructive process.

“So if you had a magic wand where you could put it inside a synthetic cell and it went exactly to the site of the tumour and did it’s thing – you’re treating the cells, treating the condition and minimising toxicity.”

If the experiments in rats go well, within five years Dr Burns hopes to begin clinical trials. These would involve injecting white blood cells containing antibiotics into humans to see if they kill E.Coli.

And within eight years, he hopes the cells will start to be used on the NHS to help immunosuppressed patients infected with superbugs. Shortly after that, Dr Burns hopes cells can be used on the health service to carry other drugs.

The method they used to build the skeletons is detailed in the journal Nature Communications.

Experts in the field, who were not involved in the research, said the breakthroughs had the potential to transform the way many drugs are delivered in the body, so they can be precisely targeted in higher doses.

“This research could be a real game changer for tissue engineering, and drug delivery,” said Eugen Stulz, an Associate Professor at Southampton University focusing on DNA chemistry and nanomaterials for medical applications.

“The team shows that they can make stable protocells, which are essentially empty synthetic membranes, and create a tissue-like assembly. This has been extremely difficult so far, but the new technology will make the process a lot easier.”

Hagan Bayley, professor of chemical biology at Oxford University, added: “This development is exciting and further down the line has the potential to change the way treatments with antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs are delivered.”
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Well, This Could Put a Whole New Spin on Vampire Movies

Tuckerfan BMF

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Well, This Could Put a Whole New Spin on Vampire Movies

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