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Title: First Antidote For Carbon Monoxide Poisoning 'Cleans' Blood In Minutes

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/08/14/0...

An anonymous reader New Atlas: An engineered protein that acts like a
molecular sponge has the potential to change how carbon monoxide poisoning is
treated, chasing down CO molecules in the bloodstream and helping the body
flush them out in just minutes, without the risk of short- or long-term
health issues that come with the current frontline treatment, pure oxygen.
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) were
focused on a natural protein known as RcoM, found in the bacterium
Paraburkholderia xenovorans. In bacteria, RcoM detects trace amounts of CO in
the environment, so the engineers believed this could be harnessed to
scavenge for CO molecules attached to red blood cells instead. The re-
engineered protein is the basis of the therapy they call RcoM-HBD-CCC. While
it's not exactly a catchy name, it possesses somewhat of a superpower when it
comes to cleaning out CO. It selectively binds tightly to the poisonous CO
molecules, while ignoring oxygen (O2) and other critical chemical compounds,
such as blood-pressure-regulating nitric oxide (NO), in the body. [...] In
mouse models, RcoM-HBD-CCC therapy was able to clear CO from the blood in
minutes, with it safely flushed out of the body through urine. The engineered
antidote acts like a sponge, seeking out and soaking up CO attached to red
blood cells. In mice, half the CO in the bloodstream was cleared out in less
than a minute, freeing the hemoglobin on the cells to once again start
carrying O2. Importantly, other experimental scavenger hemoproteins haven't
been able to selectively target CO, and as a result also bind to NO - so
infusions of such hemoproteins can lead to a reduction of NO in the blood,
tightening blood vessels and spiking blood pressure. In the study, RcoM-HBD-
CCC showed it didn't have this affinity with the vital molecule. "Unlike
other protein-based treatments, we found the compound caused only minimal
changes in blood pressure, which was an exciting finding and raised the
potential for this new molecule to have clinical applications," said study
corresponding author Dr Mark T. Gladwin, Dean of UMSOM. "This has the
potential to become a rapid, intravenous antidote for carbon monoxide that
could be given in the emergency department or even in the field by first-
responders." The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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