Post by JoannaL on Oct 17, 2019 12:35:10 GMT -5
Company Hopes to Bring Clinically Dead Back to Life
Bioquark, a US biotechnology company, has received permission to recruit 20 clinically dead patients and attempt to bring their central nervous systems back to life. In so doing, the scientists hope to eliminate the need for these patients’ reliance on machines, by reanimating parts of the upper spinal cord, where the lower brain stem is located, and potentially energize vital body functions such as breathing and heartbeats.
Trial participants will have been certified dead and kept alive solely through life support machines. “This represents the first trial of its kind and another step toward the eventual reversal of death in our lifetime,” said Bioquark CEO, Ira Pastor.
The team, which has been granted ethical permission from an Institutional Review Board at the National Institutes of Health in the US and India to begin trials on 20 subjects, is looking to recruit patients for its ReAnima Project as soon as possible. The team will first complete a phase I trial, referred to as a non-randomized, proof-of-concept study, which will determine whether or not the researchers are capable of reversing clinical brain death through drug administration, nerve stimulation and laser therapy. Another aspect will be to look at whether there will be an effect or any changes in the meninges of the brain, layers of tissue located between the skull and the surface of the brain. Specifically, the team will be investigating improvements in pulse, blood oxygen saturation, blood pressure and respiration.
“To undertake such a complex initiative, we are combining biologic regenerative medicine tools with other existing medical devices typically used for stimulation of the central nervous system, in patients with other severe disorders of consciousness,” Pastor noted.
The researchers are hoping if they can get the patients’ brains to work again, and because many of the clinically-dead can retain certain functions, like processing waste, digesting nutrients, healing wounds and growing and maturing, people will have the chance to regain some semblance of life. But for now, the team is just taking it one step at a time.
Source: Science Page News, October 15, 2019.