Can poison gas save lives?

Biologist Mark Roth at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is perfecting the use of a poison that could potentially save thousands of lives. Though the toxin, hydrogen sulfide, is extremely deadly —doses as small as an ounce can kill dozens of people — it can potentially put a person in a suspended state when used in minute amounts. Roth hopes that the toxin will create an extra window of time for doctors to save a patient from life-threatening conditions.

Roth's studies showed that mice that suffered heart attacks and were given hydrogen sulfide, cells suffered 72 percent less damage than mice that suffered heart attacks and were given no treatment. Currently, trials to test the safety of sodium sulfides in humans are already under way in Canada and Australia. However, Roth is still working on the perfect injection to generate the same amazing suspended animation seen in mice for larger animals. In a CNN interview, Roth said, "I really don't know how far this could go and whether it will work on people."

Roth first conceived of using hydrogen sulfide to treat patients when he recognized the damage oxygen could do in the human body. In a CNN interview, Roth said, "While it's true [people] need oxygen to live, it's also a toxin." According to Roth, a sharp decline of oxygen, like during a heart attack or major blood loss, causes a chain reaction which results in irreversible damage to your vital organs and brain. Oxygen substitutes, like hydrogen sulfide, help prevent these damaging reactions from taking place.

Initially, Roth experimented with fish embryos by draining the oxygen from their cells and re-introducing it the following day. The embryos didn't die but stopped growing and then recommenced when oxygen levels returned to normal with no damage. Roth continued his experiment on fruit flies. When he drained them of oxygen, the fruit flies fell to the bottom of the container and seemed to be dead. After a couple of hours, he returned fresh air to them and they astonishingly came back to life. The results of the study convinced Roth of the potential for suspended animation. All he needed was something to take oxygen out of the picture.

Roth then began draining oxygen from mice and introducing hydrogen sulfide. Their breathing rates sank from 120 to 10 breaths per minute and their temperatures fell from 37 degrees Celsius to 2 degrees Celsius. They were able to survive up to six hours and be reanimated through oxygen injection with no damage.

There are a number of obstacles for Roth to create the same suspended animation in larger animals, like swine. Roth has created an injectable form of sodium sulfide, which dissolves in the blood stream and becomes hydrogen sulfide. However, David Lefer, a researcher and cardiothoracic surgeon at Emory University, said in a CNN interview, "The failures with larger animals have been a great disappointment. To make this effective for humans may take a combination of sodium sulfide and additional agents."

Roth is a winner of the MacArthur Genius Grant for his research into suspended animation. The grant has helped him accumulate more than 600 million worth of venture capital funding for Ikaria, the company he co-founded.

Currently, DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Research Agency, funds Roth's research. Suspended animation could potentially keep soldiers suffering from catastrophic blood loss alive on the battlefield and reduce casualties.