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Scientists have found a way to change blood type
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
An article appeared in one of the scientific publications, in which a group of scientists described a method for obtaining a new enzyme capable of changing blood type. The new enzyme changes the properties of blood, turning it into a universal first group, which is suitable for transfusion to patients with any other group.
There are often situations when a hospital does not have the required blood type, and the consequences can be very sad. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was established that people's blood has different properties and has a different Rh factor, and the blood of one person may not be suitable for another. If incompatible blood is used during a transfusion, various serious consequences are possible (weakness, decreased blood pressure, increased heart rate, difficulty breathing, severe anxiety, vomiting, fever, kidney failure, death).
During the Second World War, due to the horrific experiments of the Nazis on living people, medicine received a new turn in its development. In the early 40s, an antibiotic was used for the first time - penicillin. Due to severe injuries and great blood loss, people needed blood transfusions, and the need for its transfusion arose, then it was established that each person has his own blood group and the theory of dividing it into groups (first, second, third and fourth) taking into account the Rh factor was accepted.
Each blood type has its own chain of carbon proteins that coat the red blood cells.
It was also established that the first blood group has special properties - it is suitable for transfusion to almost all patients (I negative group is used for transfusion to all patients without exception, I positive - to patients with a positive Rh factor).
However, despite its universality, only blood of type I is suitable for patients with blood group I. In recent years, scientists have found that there are about more than 30 varieties of blood (quite rare), as a result of which more than 10 groups were accepted, however, group I is still used as universal.
A new study by scientists from British Columbia has shown that there are no restrictions to follow during transfusion.
The peculiarity of the first blood group is that it has no antigens. The idea of removing antigens from the blood and thus turning it into a universal one was expressed back in the 80s, however, finding the means to do this in practice turned out to be problematic. David Kwan, the lead author of the scientific project, noted that the use of enzymes known to science was pointless, judging from the point of view of clinical use. But he and his colleagues managed to develop a method that allows increasing the effectiveness of enzymes by tens of times.
Specialists crossed enzymes in laboratory conditions that had mutated over several generations. As a result of the experiments, enzymes were obtained that were almost 200 times more effective than the original ones, which allowed the theory of the transformation of one blood group into another to be closer to reality.
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