Friday, November 18, 2011

Children's Hospital researchers reverse anemia in mice

By Michelle Lang

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston have found a way to reverse anemia in lab mice, potentially paving the way for similar progress in humans.

To replace the need for recombinant drug injections on a frequent basis, the researchers discovered that genetically engineered blood vessels were successful in secreting drugs into the  bloodstream – a method that the scientists profiled in the journal Blood to describe the secretion of erythropoietin (EPO) into the bloodstream. The results were shown in mice that had anemia both from radiation and from kidney tissue loss. Those mice with the engineered blood vessels had quicker recovery than the control mice.

If the method proves successful in delivering other therapeutic proteins on demand, it could be used for patients with hemophilia to deliver Factor VIII and Factor IX proteins, with hepatitis C to deliver alpha interferon and with multiple sclerosis to deliver interferon beta, according to Juan Melero-Martin, the study’s principal investigator from the department of cardiac surgery at Children’s Hospital Boston.

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health and the Children’s Hospital Boston Department of Cardiac Surgery funded the study. Read more about the research here.