08/15/2025
🚨 A new antidote clears deadly carbon monoxide from blood in minutes.
Scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have developed the first antidote for carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning that can clear the toxin from the bloodstream in minutes.
The engineered protein, called RcoM-HBD-CCC, acts like a molecular sponge, selectively binding CO molecules without interfering with oxygen or other vital compounds like nitric oxide.
In mouse studies, it removed half the CO in less than a minute and completely flushed it from the body via urine soon after, restoring the blood’s ability to carry oxygen almost immediately.
Currently, the only hospital treatment for CO poisoning is administering 100% oxygen—often in a hyperbaric chamber—which can take over an hour and still leaves many survivors with lasting heart or brain damage.
CO poisoning sends 50,000 people to US emergency rooms each year and causes around 1,500 deaths. The new antidote could be delivered intravenously by first responders or ER doctors, potentially preventing organ damage and death far more effectively.
The research, published in PNAS, will now move into further pre-clinical testing before human trials.
Source: Gladwin, M. T., et al. (2025). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.