In a new approach to treating autoimmune disorders, doctors are attempting to use animals’ blood to get antibodies into humans. In Britain, a boy with aplastic anaemia (a rare acquired disorder where the bone marrow fails to produce sufficient blood cells for circulation) is going to receive infusions of specially developed horse blood in an attempt to cure his disease.
Aplastic anaemia can occur at any age, and it doesn’t appear to be an inherited disorder. The only link that researchers have found is that it seems to be the result of damage to the bone marrow caused by the body attacking its own tissues, which is characteristic of an autoimmune disorder.
Using animal blood to treat this type of disease is a fairly new idea. Although researchers have been working with pig organ transplants in humans for some time now, the idea of using animal blood is new. Because animal blood is different from normal human blood, it’s thought that transfusions may prevent the autoimmune response while still being able to supply the human body with the sufficient amount of blood cells.
Scientists do this by taking an animal, in this case a horse, and injecting human leukocytes (white blood cells) into its body. These white blood cells then go into circulation, creating blood that can act as a drug (doctors are calling it “antilymphocyte globulin”), which can be administered to the patient via a blood transfusion. The white blood cells are intended to help patients with aplastic anaemia fight off the condition so they can eventually produce their own blood cells again.
If horse blood doesn’t work, then researchers say they will try using rabbit’s blood in order to create a similar product. If this therapy proves to be effective, it may present a new path for curing a number of autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis and possibly HIV/AIDS.
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