A new study direction

We originally began our studies with a simple hypothesis: if we could "reboot" the immune system for everyone over the age of 40 with plasma exchange therapy, we might help to extend health span -- the number of years of healthy life -- by 5 or 10 years longer.  We ended up disproving our own hypothesis.  While we have used plasma exchange to treat autoimmune disorders for decades, it turns out that, unless someone actually has an autoimmune disorder, the immune system is the last thing to go.  Even people with aging conditions tend to have relatively resilient immune systems.  So plasma exchange does not really make a big difference in relatively healthy individuals' immune markers.  Most of our subjects have been relatively healthy, some more and some less so.

However, along the way, we discovered two important new indications for plasma exchange. 

First, we discovered that plasma exchange normalizes blood viscosity.  Blood thickens with age, and it becomes "stickier" or more prone to clotting.  We observed that, in many cases, the plasma we removed from patients looked thick and viscous, a little bit lumpy, like watery oatmeal.  So we began to measure blood viscosity: "high shear" viscosity for thickness and thinness; and "low shear" viscosity for stickiness or clot prone characteristics.  After plasma exchange treatments, plasma removed from patients during a transfusion began to normalize in terms of viscosity.  Correspondingly, we observed reductions in blood pressure - in some cases, patients reduced or eliminated blood thinner medications. Generally, these phenomena have been observed in the history of plasma exchange many decades ago. In fact, medical practitioners first used plasma exchange therapy to treat hyperlipidemia, or excess lipids, many decades ago, dating back to the 1960's and 70's.  However, today the definition of "hyperlipidemia" - at least for insurance reimbursement purposes - means a cholesterol level around 1,000!  We believe that we can use plasma exchange to prevent heart attacks and strokes by improving blood viscosity before blood degrades into clots and clogged arteries. 

Second, we discovered that a relatively high percentage of our cognitively normal patients, over 25%,  tested positive for high levels of amyloid beta, the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, based on mass spectrometry blood testing by Shimadzu Amyloid MS service.  We also discovered that we can clear or re-balance amyloid beta levels in cognitively normal patients, thus opening up the potential to prevent Alzheimer's disease with a new paradigm of early detection and prevention.  Of course, Grifols pioneered the study of treating moderate stage Alzheimer's patients with plasma exchange beginning almost 20 years ago in Barcelona.  In 2018, Grifols reported a 61% success rate in stopping the progression of the disease.  Our chief Nurse, Gloria Simpson, actually worked on the Grifols AMBAR study in Florida from 2012 to 2018, and she witnessed patients recovering their memories.  We simply evolved the study to focus on cognitively normal or "pre-clinical" patients.

So these findings have informed our new direction: to study the potential of plasma exchange to prevent Alzheimer's in pre-clinical or prodromal (early onset) patients.  Stay tuned.  More to follow.