Filter contaminated blood with magnets

More than half of people who have sepsis will die soon. Conventional treatment is the use of antibiotics. But even high-dose antibiotics are unlikely to be enough to "squeeze". That is the reason for the emergence of new methods: using magnets.

This method is a joint research effort between Harvard University, Empa research group and Adolphe Merkle Institute.

Researchers use iron beads to coat antibodies associated with harmful bacteria.(Photo: Getty Creative).

First, researchers use iron beads to coat antibodies associated with harmful bacteria. When exposed to bacteria, antibodies do the right thing to do to cling to them. The blood is then passed through the filter, where the magnet will attract antibodies containing iron particles that bind to bacteria.

The only obstacle the team encountered was that the antibodies would only adhere to a certain bacterium. Therefore, if the patient has a blood infection caused by a variety of bacteria, the treating doctor will have to perform multiple treatments to be able to filter the blood.

Coincidentally, the Harvard team is successfully testing a synthetic antibody that allows the capture of all the most common bacterial strains causing blood infections.

However, this trial has not yet been applied to the human body. The treatment by magnet method has no specific timetable for clinical application.