User:Kavigupta/Young blood transfusion

Young blood transfusion refers to transfusing blood specifically from a young person into an older one with the intention of creating a medicinal benefit. The scientific community currently views the practice as little more than snake oil.

Research
Research was done on rodents at Stanford University in which blood transfused from young mice seemed to invigorate older mice; the circulatory systems of the mice were connected which put them in a state of parabiosis. Another study at UC Berkeley found that blood from older mice hurt younger mice, with older mice gaining no benefits from blood from younger mice. One problem with the generalizability of parabiosis experiments is that it is unclear whether the benefits come from the blood that is shared or the older mouse using the younger mouse's organs to purify their blood.

In experiments like this, researchers found that some of these mice died quickly (11 out of 69 in one experiment) for reasons the scientists could not explain, but described as possibly some form of rejection. A researcher who coauthored several mouse studies into young blood transfusion, Amy Wagers, has said that her papers do not provide a scientific basis for some of the existing human trials.

Evidence from two large studies in 2017 showed that the transfusion of blood from younger donors to older people was either no different from, or led to worse outcomes than, blood from older donors. Research on blood transfusion outcomes has been complicated by the lack of careful characterization of the transfusion products that have been used in clinical trials; studies had focused on how storage methods and duration might affect blood, but not on the differences among lots of blood themselves.

Ambrosia
A startup company, Ambrosia, has been selling "young blood transfusions" for $8,000 since 2017 under the guise of running a clinical trial, to see if such transfusions lead to changes in the blood of recipients. As of August 2017, they had 600 patients. The clinical trial has no control arm so is not randomized and is not blinded. The company was started by Jesse Karmazin, a medical school graduate without a license to practice medicine. David Wright is the licensed doctor overseeing the clinical trial; in his practice he gives intravenous treatments of vitamins and antibiotics for "non traditional" purposes, and was disciplined by the California Medical Board for the latter in 2015.

Ambriosa makes several claims, including that people feel "healthier for the first time," "look younger," and improve sleep; but these claims are so far only based on testimonials rather than clinical evidence. A bioethicist from McGill suggests that Ambrosia is running this trial as they would be unable to get FDA approval to sell this treatment otherwise.

Alkahest
Another company, Alkahest, was started based on the Stanford rodent studies, and as of 2017 was collaborating with European pharmaceutical company, Grifols, to create a blood plasma-based experimental biologic drug which they propose to test on people with Alzheimer's. Early results published in November 2017 suggest little danger but no statistically significant effect on cognition.

Young Blood Institute
Another organization, the Young Blood Institute, has also been promoting a first-in-human test of young blood transfusion, which they believe will "defy aging." The primary difference between their treatment and others is that they give the donors a drug called G-CSF, which should enhance the production of plasma. Like Ambrosia's, this trial is only capable of testing safety rather than efficacy, has no control, and charges the participants for entry, in this case $285,000 per person. Dr. Maharaj, the doctor running the trial, says that he does not need a control group as he can use the state of the patients before treatment as a baseline, and he plans to run a randomized control trial once this one is complete.

Maharaj has offered both traditional treatments and nontraditional treatments such as stem cell banking in the past. Additionally, he has ties to the Hippocrates Health Institute, an organization promoting unproven alternative medicine. The Institute is promoted by Faloon, who runs the Society for the Rescue of our Elders and founded the Life Extension Foundation, which was raided by the FDA In 1987 for illegally importing medicine in a later-dropped case. Faloon also started the FDA Holocaust Museum in 1994, a museum promoting the idea that the FDA is causing death by needlessly blocking access to new drugs.