Scientists are making synthetic blood clots that could stop internal bleeding to save lives

Two-component system designed for targeted cross-linking of wounds.

Internal bleeding has always been a factor in many deaths from accidents or other traumatic injuries.

MIT researchers have created a synthetic system that can stop internal bleeding in a bid to allow more people to survive long enough to make it to the hospital after a serious accident.

They designed a two-component material that can be injected into the body and help form blood clots at sites of internal damage.

These materials, which mimic the way the body naturally forms clots, could offer a way to keep people with serious internal injuries alive until they can get to hospital, the researchers said.

The study, published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materialsshowed that these components – a nanoparticle and a polymer – behaved significantly better in a mouse model of internal injury than previously developed hemostatic nanoparticles.

“What was particularly remarkable about these results was the level of recovery from severe injury that we have seen in animal studies. By introducing two complementary systems in sequence, it is possible to achieve a much larger clot strong,” said Paula Hammond, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, and one of the lead authors of a paper on the study.

Unlike previously developed hemostatic systems, the new technology mimics the actions of platelets – the cells that initiate blood clotting – and fibrinogen, a protein that helps form clots.

“The idea of ​​using two components allows for selective gelation of the hemostatic system as the concentration is enhanced in the wound, mimicking the end effect of the natural coagulation cascade,” said Bradley Olsen, MIT professor and author. principal of the study.

When internal damage occurs, platelets are drawn to the site and trigger the blood clotting cascade, which eventually forms a sticky plug of platelets and clotting proteins, including fibrinogen.

However, if patients are losing a lot of blood, they don’t have enough platelets or fibrinogen to form clots, the researchers said.

The MIT team wanted to create an artificial system that could help save lives by replacing these two clotting components, they said.

To achieve this, the researchers created a system with two types of materials: a nanoparticle that recruits platelets and a polymer that mimics fibrinogen. For the platelet recruitment particles, the researchers used particles similar to those they reported in a 2022 study.

These particles are made of a biocompatible polymer called PEG-PLGA, which are functionalized with a peptide called GRGDS that allows them to bind to activated platelets, the researchers said.

Because platelets are drawn to the site of an injury, these particles also tend to accumulate at injury sites, they said.

(With PTI entries)