Clinic selling controversial £6,000 blood transfusions claims 'young blood will renew youth'

The treatment, which will cost $8,000 (£6,000) at the New York clinic, involves taking blood samples from teenagers.

Once scientists test and separate the blood, they then inject the plasma – a yellow liquid that carries red and white blood cells – into the veins of older people.

Ambrosia Medical claim the procedure could improve health and boost brain function.

But experts warn while the theory has been tested on mice,  there is no scientific proof it will work in humans.

Jesse Karmazin, a Stanford Uni medical graduate who set up Ambrosia, said tests they have performed have been "really positive".

But Ambrosia Medical has not yet made the results of their experiments available to the public.

Meanwhile, independent scientists have warned the procedure could pose major health risks to patients.

They say it could increase the risk of a condition called graft-versus-host disease, which is where transfused blood attacks a patient's own blood cells.

There's also a risk of transfusion-associated lung injury, which occurs when blood clots form on the lungs following a transfusion.

Irina and Michael Conboy, two University of California at Berkeley researchers, who have published research into the procedure, branded Ambrosia Medical's treatment "dangerous".

"They quite likely could inflict bodily harm," Irina Conboy told Business Insider.

"It is well known in the medical community — and this is also the reason we don’t do transfusions frequently — that in 50 per cent of patients there are very bad side effects.

"You are being infused with somebody else’s blood and it doesn’t match. That unleashes a strong immune reaction."

But Mr Karmazin, of Ambrosia Medical, said he doesn't believe their concerns are "supported by data or clinical experience".

Millions of blood transfusions are performed each year and "blood dilution" is not responsible for the potential risks, he claims.

Last year Ambrosia ran the first clinical trial in humans to test what happens when you inject the plasma from the young into the old.

But, despite claiming the trial had successful results, Mr Karmazin has yet to publicly share the results, though an Ambrosia spokesman said they do plan to publish the data.

Among the claims the company makes is a "dramatic improvement" in protein health which is supposed to reduce inflammation, and improve brain function and general health.

Ambrosia claims it has already received more than 100 enquires for it's New York clinic within days of posting its new website.

As blood transfusions are already approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the US, the clinic has the go-ahead to continue as an off label treatment.

Much like homeopathy and holistic medicine, Ambrosia does not have to prove the treatment works, it just isn't allowed to cause patient's harm.

Blood transfusions aren't a new treatment, they've been around for years.

On the NHS they are carried out on people who are ill, including severe anaemia; sickle cell disease; cancer; or after severe bleeding due to an injury.

However, they are not carried out unless there is significant need to do so.

Blood transfusions replace blood you've lost, or part of the blood such as red blood cells, plasma or cells called platelets.

The blood is screened beforehand to eliminate the risk of HIV or hepatitis, but there is a risk of allergic reaction to the donor blood or problems with the heart, lungs or immune system afterwards.

If you have a blood transfusion, your doctor will monitor you afterwards for signs of adverse reaction.

WHAT OTHER RESEARCH SAYS…

New research, published in the journal Nature this week, looked at plasma – a part of the blood – taken from the umbilical cord of humans and injected into older mice boosted their brain function.

Geneticist Dame Linda Partridge, from University College London, told The Times: "Transfer of blood or plasma, and of plasma proteins, from human umbilical cords has been recently shown to rejuvenate hippocampal function in old mice."

But she said much more research is needed in animals, "to establish the long-term consequences and possible side effects", of the potential treatment.

It's not the first time, scientists have explored the idea that young blood could revitalise older people.

In November 2016, a California-based company Alkahest suggested proteins in teenage blood could rebuild damaged cells and help stall the effects of ageing.

Using donations from 18 year olds, scientists gave middle-aged mice two doses of human blood each week and monitored the effects.

Before the treatment, the older mice showed signs of poor memory and slower speed.

Three weeks after the transfusions, that all changed – with the rodents developing new brain cells and showing faster speed, agility and reaction times.

But blood transfusions have never been used to restore youth in humans and there is no guarantee they are safe.

In 2005, Dr Conboy headed up a study using parabiosis, a 150-year-old surgical technique that connects the veins of two living animals.

She wanted to find out if the blood from a younger mouse would benefit an older mouse.

While there were some benefits, Dr Conboy said the older mouse was also living off the younger animal's internal organs while hooked up to the machine, so it's impossible to say whether the blood transfusion worked.

She believes it's more likely that the organs provided the mouse with more energy, not the blood.

Dr Conboy followed this up with another study in 2016, this time only using the blood from a younger mouse.

There were some benefits in the muscles of the older mouse, but not enough to determine that the radical new treatment worked.

The problem lies in the fact that there is simple too much "old" blood for the body to be entirely rejuvenated by the "new" blood.

According to the Conboys, every time you have the procedure offered by Ambrosia you're increasing your risk of a potentially deadly immune response.



 

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