396: Bacteria Boost Blood Bank Budgets

This episode: Bacterial enzymes could convert donated blood to be
compatible with more people in need!


Download Episode (8.0 MB, 11.7 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Cucumber leaf spot virus

News item

Takeaways
Blood transfusions using donated blood save many lives.
Unfortunately, most donations can't be given to just anyone that
needs blood; there must be a match in blood type between donor
and recipient, or else a life-threatening reaction could occur in
the recipient's body. So type A can't donate to type B, or vice
versa, but type O is compatible with the other types.

In this study, bacterial enzymes found in human gut microbes have
the ability to cleave off the unique type A and B sugars on the
surface of red blood cells. This could allow the conversion of
all donated blood to type O, greatly increasing the blood bank
supply, but more testing is needed to develop the process.

Journal Paper:
Rahfeld P, Sim L, Moon H, Constantinescu I, Morgan-Lang C, Hallam
SJ, Kizhakkedathu JN, Withers SG. 2019. An enzymatic pathway in
the human gut microbiome that converts A to universal O type
blood. Nat Microbiol 4:1475–1485.


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