Around 117 million pints of blood aredonated each yearacross the Earth . While that sounds like lake - loads of blood , inconsistency between blood types   – the main 1 being   A , B , AB , and O   – means that a blood transfusion is n’t always square . Type O , however , is compatible with anyone who has Rhesus ( Rh ) convinced blood , so is deemed a " universal " profligate type as it can be freely admit by anyone with A+ , B+ , AB+ , or O+ , which is three - quarter of the world ’s universe .

Now , a unexampled study has shown how enzymes can be used to covert A character red descent cellphone to “ universal ” bestower O type blood cellphone . While the science is still in its early days , it has the potential to pave the way towards greatly increase the supply of , and access to , blood for life - save transfusions .

Your blood character depends on thedifferent type of antigen , the structures that spark an immune response , on the Earth’s surface of reddened blood cell ( as well as antibodies in the blood plasma ) . In the uncomplicated terms , line chemical group A has A antigen on the ruby roue electric cell with anti - B antibodies , while blood group B has B antigens with anti - A antibody . So , for instance , if you pumped a   recipient with case A   rake with a dry pint of eccentric vitamin B complex blood , their anti - B antibodies will become fired up by the B antigens , triggering a potentially living - threatening immune response .

On the other hand , blood mathematical group O is compatible with both as it does n’t contain A or type B antigen but has “ neutral ” H antigen . Reporting in the journalNature Microbiology , researcher at the University of British Columbia have found an effective way to remove the “ cumbersome ” A antigens by convert it to the total heat antigen . This have in mind that the modified parentage grouping A wo n’t touch off an resistant response to its receiver , just like blood chemical group oxygen , and could be universally transfused to patient of the same Rhesus eccentric .

believe that A is the 2nd most common blood type , after O , this trick could be revolutionary in increasing the supply of universal donor blood .

Perhaps most intriguingly of all , the method acting actually use enzymatic footpath set up in the bacterium thatlive in the human gut . After obtainingFlavonifractorplautiibacteria from human poop , they isolated its specific genes that code for two bacterial enzymes that are capable of removing cardinal components of the A antigen .

Simply by adding small amounts of the two enzymes totype A blood , they were capable to strip it of its A antigens , creating a sample distribution that could be used as a “ universal ” blood type . So far , this has only be carried in a petri dish in the comfort of a science laboratory , so there ’s still a lot of work to do before we see this is in infirmary . Nevertheless , this work undoubtedly hold a lot of life - changing and life - saving hope .

" In recent years the research community has started to realize the grandness of the human microbiome in the context of human health . However , it may prove to be even more important since the micro-organism within us also harbor enzyme action we do not even roll in the hay about yet , " lead author   Peter Rahfeld , a postdoctoral investigator at the University of British Columbia , write inan accompanying article .

" I am keen to see what sort of other activities will be discovered within the human gut microbiome in the hereafter , " he added .