Blue blood was invented in the USSR

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In the early 1980s, Felix Beloyartsev, a professor at the Institute of Biological Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, made a sensational discovery. He invented artificial blood. However, soon all work on the project was banned, and the professor himself hanged himself.

In early 2004, American scientists announced a loud sensation, which, in their opinion, can be equated with the first flight to the moon. A universal substitute for human blood has been invented, which, unlike a real scarlet liquid, can be stored indefinitely and transported without compromising the quality of the "product". According to some indicators, the know-how even surpasses ordinary blood, according to American doctors: the substitute provides the body with oxygen better. But few people know that the primacy in the invention of "synthetic blood" - perfluorane - belongs to Russian scientists from Pushchino near Moscow, who developed it more than 20 years ago. Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor of the Department of Biophysics, Physics Department, Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov Simon Shnol called the invention of "blue blood" the last tragedy of science in the USSR.

“At the end of the 70s, through special channels, the government of the USSR received a message about the work carried out in the USA and Japan to create blood substitutes based on perfluorocarbon emulsions,” recalls Simon Elievich. - The strategic importance of these studies was obvious. The Cold War was in full swing, and tensions in the world were growing. In any war, and especially in a nuclear war, the life of the surviving population in the first seconds depends primarily on the supply of donor blood. But even in peacetime it is not enough. And without global catastrophes, the preservation of donated blood is an extremely difficult matter. Another problem is how to avoid contracting it with hepatitis and AIDS viruses? The thought that all of these problems could be gotten rid of through a harmless, uninfected, group-less individual, unafraid to heat up a perfluorocarbon emulsion seemed like a lifesaver. And the government instructed the Academy of Sciences to solve this problem. The vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences Yuri Ovchinnikov and the director of the Institute of Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Genrikh Ivanitsky took up the case. Their "right hand" was a young, talented scientist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Felix Beloyartsev."

By the end of 1983, the drug was ready for clinical trials. It was a bluish liquid - hence the poetic name "blue blood" - and, in addition to many useful properties, was truly unique: it could deliver oxygen through the smallest capillaries. This was a tremendous discovery, as with a large loss of blood, the vessels contract. Without oxygen, the heart, brain, all vital organs and tissues die. They started talking about "Russian blue blood" as a saving panacea for the human race. In similar studies by American and Japanese researchers, a crisis has come. Experimental animals after administration of drugs often died from vascular occlusion. How to solve this problem, only our scientists have guessed.

Beloyartsev was absorbed in this work: he did not sleep for days, traveled for the necessary devices and drugs from Pushchino to Moscow several times a day - and this is 120 kilometers - spent all his salary on this and naively believed that everyone around shared his fanaticism. "Guys, we are doing a great job, the rest does not matter!" - he repeated to his employees, not realizing that for someone it is not so.

At this time, five-year-old Anya Grishina was taken to the intensive care unit of the Filatovskaya hospital. The girl, hit by a trolleybus, was in a hopeless state: multiple fractures, bruises, tissue and organ ruptures. In addition, in the nearest hospital, where Anya was taken after the injury, she received a blood transfusion of the wrong group. The child was dying. The doctors announced this to the parents, but they did not want to put up with the inevitable. Children's surgeon, a friend of Felix Beloyartsev, Professor Mikhelson said: “The last hope is that Felix has some kind of drug” ┘ The council with the participation of the Deputy Minister of Health, children's surgeon Isakov decided: “For health reasons, ask Professor Beloyartsev” ┘ He heard the request by phone and immediately rushed to Moscow. He brought two ampoules of perfluorane. Beloyartsev's closest associate, Evgeny Maevsky, remained at the phone in Pushchino.

“After a while Beloyartsev called,” recalls Yevgeny Ilyich. - He was very excited. "What to do? - he asked for advice. “The girl is alive, after the introduction of the first ampoule, it seems that she got better, but there is a strange tremor” (trembling). I said: "Enter the second!" The girl survived. Since then, I did not know anything about her fate. But one day, it was in 1999, I was invited to television to participate in a program about perftoran. At some point, a tall, rosy-cheeked girl of about twenty, what is called "blood and milk", entered the studio. As it turned out, this was our ward with Felix - Anya Grishina, a student, an athlete and a beauty."

Following Anya, perftoran saved another 200 soldiers in Afghanistan.

It would seem that after this the drug is guaranteed a great future, and its creators will receive prizes and honors. In fact, everything turned out differently. A criminal case was opened against Felix Beloyartsev and his colleagues. They were accused of testing a drug on humans that has not yet been officially registered by the Ministry of Health. A commission from the KGB arrived in Pushchino, “people in civilian clothes” were on duty day and night at the institute and under the doors of the apartments of the developers of the “blue blood”, interrogated and skillfully pitted people against each other. Denunciations began, after which a number of absurd accusations were brought against Beloyartsev - for example, that he stole alcohol from the laboratory, sold it, and built a dacha with the proceeds.

“Beloyartsev has changed a lot,” recalls Simon Shnol. - Instead of a cheerful, witty, energetic man, surrounded by a crowd of like-minded and loving female colleagues, we saw a discouraged, disappointed man. The last straw in this wild story was the search at the very dacha that Felix allegedly built with the "stolen" money. It was located in the north of the Moscow region - about 200 kilometers from Pushchino. It was an old wooden house, in which Beloyartsev, madly busy with work, had not been for several years. He asked permission to go there in his car. People from the "organs" followed. After a two-hour search, during which they, naturally, did not find anything suspicious, Felix asked permission to spend the night at the dacha. They didn't mind. In the morning the watchman found Felix Fyodorovich dead. After some time, a letter was sent to Beloyartsev's friend Boris Tretyak, sent on the eve of the suicide: “Dear Boris Fedorovich! I can no longer live in an atmosphere of this slander and betrayal of some employees. Take care of Nina and Arkasha. Let G. R. (Henrikh Romanovich Ivanitsky. - Ed.) Will help Arkady in his life - your FF."

Ivanitsky was shocked by the death of Beloyartsev. On the day of the funeral, he filed a protest with the USSR Prosecutor General “On bringing Professor Beloyartsev to suicide”. He did not know that this was too strong wording for the prosecutor's office, which would do everything to discredit this statement. A "commission" came to Pushchino again, which conducted a "check" and made a conclusion: Beloyartsev committed suicide "under the weight of evidence."

“Why Beloyartsev could not stand it? - argues Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Genrikh Ivanitsky, who now heads the Institute of Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Pushchino. - I think he was not sufficiently tempered, morally not ready for such a test. To live in those years and engage in scientific activity, it was not enough just a brilliant mind. A special tempering, a diplomatic gift is required. Otherwise, it is easy to fall into disgrace with the party leadership and the KGB. These people did not like other people's successes. Everything that was done good in the USSR had to be “written off” to the merits of the CPSU. The persecution, which Beloyartsev attributed only to his own account, was in fact directed not only at him, but at the common cause that we were engaged in."

Soon after the death of Beloyartsev, the criminal case was closed: none of the "victims" of the experiment was killed, on the contrary, perftoran was the only salvation for everyone. No corpus delicti was found.

It was only in the late 80s that it was decided to rehabilitate the "blue blood" and the good name of Felix Beloyartsev. The development of the drug continued, which for a long time was carried out in Pushchino semi-underground, funded by enthusiasts.

“While researching perftoran, we all the time ran into surprises,” says Genrikh Ivanitsky. - The fact that it is an excellent substitute for donated blood was clear from the very beginning. But, like any drug, perftoran has side effects. For example, it settles in the liver for a while. We believed that this was a significant drawback and tried to deal with it. But then it turned out that with the help of perfluorocarbons, certain chemicals are synthesized in the liver that cleanse it of toxins. This means that with the help of "blue blood" can be treated, for example, our national disease - cirrhosis of the liver, as well as hepatitis. Or another option for the happy use of a side effect. When a patient is injected with perftoran, he has a chill similar to a flu-like condition - this activates the immune system. It turns out that perftoran can be used as a stimulant for the immune system, if it is weakened, and even treat AIDS."