Every cell in the body requires oxygen to maintain correct homeostasis, and hypoxic conditions can quickly lead to irreversible organ damage or death. Current methods to restore blood oxygen levels in severely ill individuals employ a mechanical ventilator that relies on functioning lung tissue and is known to aggravate tissue, in some cases to the point of severe lung injury. This technology describes improved compositions for blood oxygenation as well as improved methods for producing and delivering these compositions to patients or explanted cells, tissues, or organs. Owing to these advances, this technology holds a wide array of potential utilities for emergency and specialty medicine, pharmaceutical development, and basic research.
Using a combination of different lipids, emulsifying agents, preparation and delivery methods this technology offers a wide array of applications, most notably in oxygen delivery that can be tuned for rapid infusion, long-term/sustained oxygenation, and situational or targeted delivery. The microbubbles may also be functionalized with anesthetics, bronchodilators, or therapeutics targeting the central nervous system, along with buffering agents such as nitric oxide, isoflorane, antiepileptics, or saline. The lipid envelopes can also contain proteins or synthetic agents to increase, prolong, or target oxygen/drug delivery such as lung protein mimetics. Further, the technology is well characterized, easy to use, portable, stable, and inexpensive to produce, making rapid and wide distribution possible.
Extensive in vitro experiments led to optimized methodology and compositions while confirming the utility of the technology, initially demonstrating the microbubbles may be kept at room temperature for up to 8 hours with embodiments to increase this to weeks or months. In vivo experiments with a rabbit model of hypoxemic ventilation showed that after a pulse was lost, jugular injection of oxygenated microbubble resulted in a rapid increase of heart rate from 10 to 100 beats per minute and was maintained for up to 90 minutes.
Mark A. Borden, Ph.D.
Tech Ventures Reference: IR 2420
