SCIENTISTS INVENT BIO SPLEEN DEVICE THAT USES MAGNET TO CLEANSE BLOOD
Scientists
recently unveiled a device called 'bio-spleen,' which uses a magnet to cleanse
the blood by bacteria, fungi and toxins.
Researchers hope that the
external gadget, potentially throwing a lifeline to patients with sepsis and
other infections, could be adapted one day for stripping Ebola and other
viruses from blood, News24.com reported.
Acting rather like a spleen, the
invention uses magnetic nanobeads coated with a genetically-engineered human
blood protein called MBL.
Donald Ingber said that this
treatment could be carried out even before the pathogen has been formally
identified and the optimal antibiotic treatment has been chosen.
They could potentially treat
patients with this bio-spleen during the most infectious, viraemic phase of the
disease and reduce the amount of virus in their blood, he further added.
The device was developed to treat
sepsis, or blood infection, which affects 18 million people in the world every
year, with a 30 percent-50 percent mortality rate
Comments
Post a Comment