Researchers Have Managed to Convert any Blood Type to “Universal Donor”

Get into the hospital and need a blood transfusion urgently? What happens, though, if they do not have your blood type? Researchers are close to finding a solution to solve this problem forever.

Specifically, they support the evidence that if they change an enzyme to destroy antigens of type A and B, then blood has similar characteristics of the blood type 0, the universal donor.wqd

Antigens A and B are sugars on the surface of red blood cells. The combination of antigens – two or more blood cells with antigen – determine the blood type A, B, AB or 0.

Blood type determines what kind of donor your body accepts in emergency situations. So those who have group 0 can donate to anyone because they do not have these antigens, which can be rejected by the host, while the other types of blood have no precise indications so they can rise to adverse immune reactions.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have developed an enzyme that could solve this problem. This enzyme neutralizes antigens, turning blood types to A or B into 0.

“The concept is not new, but until now it was necessary to use so many enzymes that it was not very practical. But I am confident that we can take the idea to another level, “said Steve Withers, one of the researchers.

The enzyme was created in a process called “directed evolution”. This method of “engineering” a protein is based on the process of natural selection and can guide the action of an enzyme, for example, to a predetermined goal.

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