Image showing a
carbonate particle releasing carbon dioxide and propelling
at a high velocity
through an aqueous solution. Credit: James Baylis
(October 4, 2015) UBC
researchers have created the first self-propelled particles capable of
delivering coagulants against the flow of blood to treat severe bleeding, a
potentially huge advancement in trauma care.
“Bleeding is the number one killer of young people, and
maternal death from postpartum hemorrhage can be as high as one in 50 births in
low resource settings so these are extreme problems,” explains Christian
Kastrup, an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology and the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British
Columbia.
Traditional methods of halting severe bleeding are not very
effective when the blood loss originates inside the body like the uterus, sinus
or abdomen.
“People have developed hundreds of agents that can clot
blood but the issue is that it’s hard to push these therapies against severe blood
flow, especially far enough upstream to reach the leaking vessels. Here, for
the first time, we’ve come up with an agent that can do that,” Kastrup said.
Kastrup teamed up with a group of researchers, biochemical
engineers and emergency physicians to develop simple, gas-generating calcium
carbonate micro-particles that can be applied in powder form to stop critical
bleeding.
The particles work by releasing carbon dioxide gas, like
antacid tablets, to propel them toward the source of bleeding.