Local Oxygen Delivery with Silk Fibroin-Based Microparticles Loaded with Salmon Hemoglobin
Abstract
Oxygen gas is present in the air, and when we breathe, our lungs and heart work together to transfer oxygen from the air to our blood, which is then pumped throughout the body. The oxygen is carried in our blood by a protein called hemoglobin, which is inside red blood cells. In most cases, our bodies work properly, and all our tissues have enough oxygen. However, following a traumatic injury or in patients with disease, the blood may not be able to carry as much oxygen as it needs to. In the hospital, patients can get a blood transfusion, where blood from another person is added to the patient’s to increase the number of red blood cells and the amount of hemoglobin they have. However, there are many cases where patients are unable to get transfusions (e.g., immunocompromised patients, religious reasons, on the battlefield). Thus, we are looking to develop an all-natural, cost-effective, and pathogen-free oxygen-carrying particle, addressing key research needs in the topic area of pathogen-inactivated blood products. While this particle may be used to augment oxygen movement in the blood, they could also be used in solutions to preserve transplant organs, as a part of a pharmaceutical formulation, or as part of a wound dressing. We are specifically looking to develop particles with tunable degradation rates, so we can control how long the particle stays in the body. To do this, we are using an all-natural silk fibroin-based particle. Silk fibroin is a natural protein found in the cocoons of silkworms. Your body can degrade it into simple protein building blocks without any extra efforts or adverse side effects. Silk fibroin particles make good carriers, but they don’t aid in oxygen delivery. Thus, we aim to incorporate hemoglobin from fish in our silk particles. Fish use their hemoglobin to help them control their buoyancy in addition to helping them keep their bodies alive. Due to the extra application of hemoglobin in fish, the protein acts differently from hemoglobin in humans. It has a different way of letting go and delivering oxygen to neighboring spaces. Thus, the innovative aspect of this project is the unique combination of a novel fish hemoglobin with an all-natural particle covering. Through the work presented in this proposal, we will determine the key features of the silk material (size, concentration) that will enable biodegradability on the necessary timescales for a given application. We will also investigate how silk and salmon hemoglobin combine and evaluate ways to improve the ability of the particle to hold on to and store oxygen. Lastly, we aim to design and develop the particles so that they do not require refrigeration. This feature will make this interesting technology easily adaptable to a wide range of places and to a wide range of patients. By the end of this project, we will have developed an optimized a few formulations of silk particles that contain salmon hemoglobin and evaluated the ability of these particles to store and release oxygen. We will have also evaluated how injection in the bloodstream impacts rodent health and well-being, demonstrating that these particles do not pose any risk to patients.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Dec 05, 2021
- Source ID
- W81XWH2110199
Entities
People
- Whitney L Stoppel
Organizations
- United States Army
- University of Florida