System for inducing a prolonged state of hypometabolism

The invention refers to a device combined with a composition that are capable of generating a state of hypometabolism (synthetic torpor) in the human body without the side effects of therapeutic hypothermia.

How does it work?

In the field of general medicine, it is known to subject patients to acute treatments aimed at achieving a cooling-induced reduction in metabolism (therapeutic hypothermia) in cases where organs with high metabolic requirements, such as the heart or brain, are experiencing difficulties in supplying energy substrates (e.g. due to cardiac arrest, stroke, etc.). Currently, therapeutic hypothermia is limited to a few degrees of body cooling (not below 34 °C), to a few days’ duration, and has several side effects. This invention, on the other hand, is capable of inducing and maintaining a chronic state of metabolic reduction in people resulting in hypothermia. In this way, conditions of hypometabolism can be artificially maintained for prolonged times, without the negative physiological effects typical of therapeutic hypothermia, such as those necessary to extend the life span of patients awaiting transplantation. This state is known as “synthetic torpor”. The system comprises both an apparatus and a composition of substances, capable of reproducing this state, which can be considered comparable to animal hibernation in mammals.

Applications

• In medicine for organ transplantation, for the treatment of diseases such as acute radiation syndrome;
• For the treatment of certain conditions, such as status epilepticus or septic shock;
• Anti-tumour radiotherapy;
• Space exploration;
• For quarantine or isolation of patients exposed to contaminants of various kinds.

Advantages

• Increased times of the metabolic reduction state;
• Reduction of side effects.