Platelets have been somewhat of a mystery for me in my medical career. I was taught in medical school that these were protein fragments that were critical components of forming a clot. With inadequate platelets, you bleed to death. I spent many sleepless hours as a surgical resident trying to maintain adequate platelet counts in my critical ill patients.
For the past 20 years or so, there has been a recognition that platelets play a much larger role as modifiers of inflammation and growth, and this led to the development of platelet rich plasma (PRP) injections to improve bone growth for dental work, improve the function of inflamed/damaged joints, and speed the repair of muscles and tendons. These procedures involved drawing a small amount of blood and isolating the platelet fraction from that blood. This purified platelet solution is then injected into the area of damage.
We have known for a long time that cells (like stem cells) will release factors into the circulation or tissue through exosomes. An exosome is a small sac of material that is surrounded by a membrane. Most of the benefits we see from stem cell therapy is from the exosomes these stem cells produce. It appears that platelets also release exosomes containing things like platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) as well as multiple agents that modify the immune response.1 The net result is that platelets appear to be intimately involved in the inflammatory and healing response.
In the past few years, there has been a recognition that PRP can be used for far more things than simply Musculo-skeletal repair. Because of it’s healing and immunomodulatory impact, PRP has been used for conditions as diffuse as improving uterine thickness to assist infertility to managing erectile dysfunction.2,3. The success of PRP in multiple medical conditions has led to the thought of whether PRP could be used as an IV therapy to treat a systemic (whole-body) state of inflammation.
Enter the TruDose approach. This is a new therapy in which an amount of blood is drawn to obtain and adequate number of platelets (this is the true dose part of it). This blood is then processed to purify the platelets and this solution of PRP is injected into the patient’s blood stream via an IV. The idea is to use the immunomodulating benefits of PRP to treat a patient’s systemic inflammation.
We started using TruDose at Bio Energy in February of this year. It appears to have significant benefit for patients that have documented persistent inflammation. Some response is typically seen with the first treatment, but significant improvement requires at least three treatments. The most significant responses have been in our pediatric patients that suffer from behaviors from brain inflammation syndromes (PANS/PANDAS). TruDose appears to give a rapid improvement in behavior, calming of aggression, and lessening of the anxiety seen with these syndromes. We are seeing this with even one treatment. Repeated treatments appear to be necessary for a durable response.
Although we do not have the studies to document the effective of this therapy, our personal experience and the experience of colleagues suggest that this is an effective way to treat systemic, inflammatory conditions. This would include the pediatric syndromes discussed above (primarily, these are kids on the autism spectrum with brain inflammation as the underlying cause), patients suffering from post-COVID or post-vaxxed syndromes, and patients that have ill-defined immune activation syndromes. This technique appears to offer a solution to many of our patients who are suffering from these syndromes.
More videos on the TruDose therapy can be found on their Vimeo page including some pretty powerful patient testimonials. Linked below:
https://vimeo.com/user164976616
Wei, et al. (2022). “Platelet-Derived Exosomes and Atherothrombosis.” Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine.9:886132
Li, et al. (2024). “Network Meta-Analysis of Four Common Immunomodulatory Therapies for the Treatment of Patients With Thin Endometrium.” Gynecological Endocrinology.40(1):2360072
Mao, et al. (2024). “The Efficacy of Platelet Rich Plasma in the Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.” Aging Male. 27(1):2358944
