By Kevin Stam

In March of 2020, I spent several months under quarantine with my family in Brittany, France. During these long days, I would often walk down to the beachside, about a ten-minute walk from our home. It was the perfect spot to relax, read, or exercise.

On one cloudy day, I went down to our local beach and noticed splashes along the incoming tide. As I approached the sea, I could see the silver outline of fish jumping from the water.

Suddenly, it hit me. I had never imagined there could be fish so close to home and I quickly became immersed with the idea of fishing a few! So, over the next several weeks, I absorbed all the knowledge I could related to fishing. I began researching everything from the equipment I would need, to basic fishing techniques, as well as finding good baits. When it came to the bait, I had a vague idea that seaworms would work. While researching, I had seen someone online use a pitchfork to pull out huge red worms.

The worms I saw online and would later find on the beach near my home were called lugworms, also known as rock worms or blow lug. Lugworms are a type of marine worm that inhabit the coastal regions of Northwestern Europe and the coasts of England.

They are often found in groups about 20cm below the sand where the sand is still wet from the tide. They have a set of gills to breathe underwater and grow to be about 25cm in size.

Lugworms eat decaying matter such as bits of algae and, in doing so, leave tracks of their excrements in the sand called casts. The cast is the lugworm’s signature.

Besides being sculptors of the sand, lugworms are also an intricate part of the food-web, representing 30% of the beach’s biomass and serve as prey for seabirds and fish.

However, the longest-held secret about lugworms lies in their blood…

In 2003, researchers began unlocking the lugworm’s (Arenicola Marina) secret as Madcow disease and HIV led to shortages in the world’s blood supply. French researchers, including Dr. Franck Zal, started examining lugworms to research the properties of their blood, but they feared that it would be incompatible with human blood.

However, as they completed more testing, they found a unique property of lugworm blood. Instead of having hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying molecule in blood) stored in red blood cells, as is the case of humans, lugworms have hemoglobin directly dissolved in their blood.

This means that lugworm blood is compatible with any human blood type, making it a “universal donor.”

Lugworm blood is actually 40 times more oxygen-rich than human blood, and this has opened numerous possibilities in the medical field. In 2015, the first clinical trial was conducted using lugworm hemoglobin for patients undergoing kidney transplants in France. Scientists found that patients who had received the lugworm hemoglobin recovered faster from the transplant and even had improved organ function compared to the traditional electrolyte preservation method.

The pace of innovation following this initial discovery has been ground-breaking, particularly for preserving transplanted organs effectively as well as sustaining transplanted organs post-surgery.

Hemo2life is the lugworm hemoglobin compound patented by Dr. Franck Zal of the biotechnology company Hemarina in Brittany, France.

Their team has commercialized Hemo2life (lugworm hemoglobin) for the successful transplant of multiple types of organs, including the lungs, pancreas, and even the heart. In one case, Hemo2life was even used to successfully preserve the full-face transplantation of a man needing a face graft!

Digging deeper into the coastal environment where the worm lives provides answers to explain its essential physiology. For 450 million years, the worm has been subject to low and high tides of the sea. During high tide, the lugworm collects oxygen through its gills and eventually stores it in its blood’s hemoglobin molecules. When the water retreats and the tide lowers, the worm can then use its stored oxygen for over 8 hours while dwelling just below the sand.

“While human ingenuity may devise various inventions to the same ends, it will never devise anything more beautiful, nor more simple, nor more to the purpose than nature does, because in her inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.” Da Vinci

Lugworm hemoglobin is, without a doubt, saving lives today. One breakthrough of the Hemarina research team was the synthesis of Hemo2life into powder-form, allowing it to be used for human blood transfusions. This has potentially limitless applications for saving lives of those impacted by wildfires, human-made catastrophes, or car accidents. Contrary to the shelf-life of human blood, 42 days at 5-degrees Celsius, the powder form of lugworm blood can remain stable for 5-years at room temperature.

Currently, Hemarina is involved in a clinical trial to use Hemo2life as a therapeutic for treating late-stage COVID-19 disease. When the disease spreads to the lungs, the patient undergoes severe lung failure and difficulty breathing just before the stages of intensive care. Dr. Zal and his team hope Hemo2life can be used intravenously to restore the blood’s oxygen-levels and avoid organ failure associated with hypoxia due to COVID-19.

References

Coronavirus Et Pistes De Traitement : Franck Zal Co-Fondateur Hemarina (Mardi 31 Mars 2020), FRANCE 3 Bretagne, 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H_zvr_iskY.

Dr Franck Zal, HEMARINA, Le Sang Des Vers Marins Au Service Des Transplantations, YouTube, 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBUqCQWrfaA&t=842s.

Fish, John, and Susan Fish. “A Student's Guide to the Seashore.” 2009, doi:10.1017/cbo9781139035125.

Gaubert, Camille. “Le Premier Homme à Se Faire Greffer Un Deuxième Visage a Bénéficié De L'hémoglobine De Ver Marin.” Sciences Et Avenir, 17 Apr. 2018, www.sciencesetavenir.fr/sante/os-et-muscles/le-premier-homme-a-se-faire-greffer-un-deuxieme-visage-a-beneficie-de-l-hemoglobine-de-ver-marin_123163.

“HEMARINA, UNE AVENTURE HUMAINE, SCIENTIFIQUE ET ENTREPRENEURIALE: Hemarina, Le 1er Transporteur D'oxygène Universel à Visée Thérapeutique.” Hemarina, 2020, www.hemarina.com/hemarina-laboratoire-biopharmaceutique.

“Sandworm Blood Could Help Coronavirus Victims.” Voice of America, 2020, www.voanews.com/science-health/coronavirus-outbreak/sandworm-blood-could-help-coronavirus-victims.

“The Lugworm, Frequently Used as Bait, Could Save Human Lives.” The World from PRX, www.pri.org/stories/2017-07-31/lugworm-frequently-used-bait-could-save-human-lives.

Mayes, E., and D.i.d. Howie. “Biochemical Composition and Sediment Temperature in Relation to the Reproductive Cycle in the Lugworm Arenicola Marina.” Netherlands Journal of Sea Research, vol. 19, no. 2, 1985, pp. 111–118., doi:10.1016/0077-7579(85)90014-6.

The Long-Held Secret Of Lugworms