A research letter authored by investigators in Japan has been published in Blood Advances reporting on the first-in-human phase I clinical trial of hemoglobin-vesicles (HbVs) developed as a transfusion alternative. The researchers explained that hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs) “can be useful because they are pathogen-free, blood-type-free, and capable of long-term preservation.” HBOCs are chemical entities designed to provide an alternative to red blood cell transfusion in a variety of clinical settings.
For this trial, the authors have developed and used an alternative to first-generation HBOCs. These have been known to “entail statistically higher risks of myocardial infarction and death in the clinical trials [presumably] related to their small molecular sizes, high intrinsic affinities to nitric oxide (NO), and their acellular structure, which collectively cause extravasation, vasoconstriction, hypertension, and oxidative lesion.”