\n<\/p>\n
September 11, 2025<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Early Experiments Show Fast-Acting Antidote Targets Carbon Monoxide Poisoning<\/p>\n
A study in mice and on human blood uses a new protein to snag carbon monoxide before it latches onto blood cells<\/p>\n
By Sara Novak edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier<\/span><\/p>\n A new antidote is designed to rapidly address carbon monoxide poisoning.<\/p>\n Carbon monoxide is a quiet assassin. Odorless and colorless, it has a uniquely efficient ability to starve the body of oxygen: It acts quickly, building up in the bloodstream and attaching to hemoglobin in oxygen\u2019s place. When oxygen can\u2019t attach, red blood cells don\u2019t transport it around the body, effectively suffocating the organs.<\/p>\n This gas, a common by-product of incomplete fuel combustion, causes 50,000 to 100,000 emergency room visits and 1,500 deaths in the U.S. each year. Typical treatment uses an oxygen mask or hyperbaric chamber to overwhelm the body with oxygen, pushing the carbon monoxide molecules off the hemoglobin cells so that oxygen can attach instead. It\u2019s effective, but it\u2019s slow\u2014and while only a small percentage of people with carbon monoxide poisoning die, survivors are often left with brain damage, cardiac complications or kidney and liver problems from oxygen deprivation.<\/p>\n But new research suggests a faster antidote. A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA documents a newly engineered protein therapy called RcoM-HBD-CCC; given intravenously to mice, it was shown to cling to carbon monoxide (CO) and expel the poison via the kidneys within minutes.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want a treatment that you can give in the field,\u201d says study author Mark T. Gladwin, dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He says RcoM-HBD-CCC could be injected into people on their way to the hospital in an ambulance or to people with low oxygen levels at the site of fires.<\/p>\n \u201cThis molecule becomes CO-bound pretty much as soon as you inject it,\u201d says study co-author and University of Pittsburgh researcher Jesus Tejero. Because it has a much higher affinity for carbon monoxide than carbon monoxide has to hemoglobin, RcoM-HBD-CCC quickly sponges up the toxin. In addition to the mouse study, the researchers also confirmed that the protein quickly clung to carbon monoxide in human blood in test tubes.<\/p>\n Lance B. Becker, an emergency medicine researcher at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra\/Northwell, who was not involved in the study, notes that the new protein binds to carbon monoxide\u2014but not to nitric oxide, a gas molecule that plays a key role in relaxing blood vessels to improve blood flow. Gladwin and his team had previously engineered a protein with an affinity to carbon monoxide\u2014but it also bound to nitric oxide, causing problematic artery stiffening in early mouse tests.<\/p>\n Becker hopes this treatment will prove effective in planned studies with larger animals and eventually in human trials, which are likely still a few years off. Though researchers won\u2019t know if it works in human bodies until they try it, Becker is optimistic. \u201cIt\u2019s a very clever little molecule if it pans out, he says.\u201d<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" September 11, 2025 2 min read Early Experiments Show Fast-Acting Antidote Targets Carbon Monoxide Poisoning A study in mice and on human blood uses a new protein to snag carbon monoxide before it latches onto blood cells By Sara Novak edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier A new antidote is designed to rapidly address carbon monoxide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[1263,2521,442,12647,12648,12649,12650,241,1415],"class_list":{"0":"post-20560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-antidote","9":"tag-carbon","10":"tag-early","11":"tag-experiments","12":"tag-fastacting","13":"tag-monoxide","14":"tag-poisoning","15":"tag-show","16":"tag-targets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s Time to Stand Up for Science<\/h2>\n