‘Blood cell membrane-magnetic nanoparticles’ capture pathogens and recover them with a magnet
Researchers at the Ulsan Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) have developed a technology that removes the cause of infectious diseases such as viruses from the blood.
UNIST announced on the 26th that a research team led by Professor Joo-Heon Kang of the Department of Biomedical Engineering has developed a ‘blood purification treatment’ using ‘blood cell membrane-magnetic nanoparticles’ that cover the surface of magnetic nanoparticles with a blood cell membrane.
According to the research team, if the blood cell membrane-magnetic nanoparticles react with the blood of a patient circulating outside the body, pathogens such as bacteria and viruses can be captured and then taken out with a magnet and sent out of the body.
The surface of red blood cells or white blood cells has the characteristic of protecting the human body by catching pathogens, and functional magnetic nanoparticles were made using this.
Excessive immune responses such as sepsis and cytokine storm can lead to death, and antibiotics, antivirals, and vaccines have been developed to counter this, but the emergence of super bacteria, side effects of antibiotics, and new pathogens such as COVID-19 hard to bear
This treatment has the advantage of being effective and universal because it can be applied to any patient or pathogen.
The research team explained that it can remove 99% of multidrug-resistant bacteria and 135 different types of bacteria in human feces, and it can also remove mutants of coronavirus.
The research team demonstrated the therapeutic effect of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and carbapenem-resistant E. coli, which are known to be difficult to treat with conventional antibiotics, in an experiment using mice.
When blood purification treatment was performed on mice infected with these bacteria, all of them survived, and the immune system returned to normal a week following treatment.
The research team expects that the therapeutic effect will be great if this technology is combined with the treatment of sepsis or secondary bacterial infection in the intensive care unit.
In particular, as the number of infections with secondary antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the intensive care unit is increasing, it is expected to be of great help in the treatment and management of critically ill patients hospitalized for COVID-19.
Professor Kang Joo-heon said, “It is a technology that can remove many types of infectious agents without prior diagnosis by mimicking the immune response principle of our body. We plan to develop it as a next-generation infectious disease treatment technology that can respond quickly,” he said.
The research results were published on the 7th in the online edition of ‘Small’, an international academic journal, and are regarding to be published.
The research was carried out with the support of the Samsung Electronics Future Technology Development Center and UNIST.
/yunhap news
