To the last drop
Scientists have developed an installation capable of "seeing" all human blood
Scientists Saratov State University has developed a prototype "in vivo cytometer" for detecting extraneous biological objects — cancer cells, blood clots, pathogens in blood infection — directly in the bloodstream. Unlike a conventional cytometer to examine almost the entire volume of blood in the body, it can examine almost the entire volume of blood in the human body, the press service of the university reported.
Flow cytometry is a modern technology for rapid measurement of cell characteristics and processes occurring in them, which allows blood to be examined by light scattering and fluorescence signals.
As scientists of the Saratov National Research State University named after N.G. Chernyshevsky (SSU) explained, the use of flow cytometry makes it possible to diagnose oncological diseases, monitor patients at risk, and assess the state of the immune system.
Photo: Junior researcher of N.G. Chernyshevsky SSU Alexey Ermakov.
"The main difference between the "in vivo cytometer" created by us from the usual one is that, since the flowing blood is being examined, it can examine almost the entire volume of blood in the body, which makes it possible to find very rare populations of objects," said Daniil Bratashov, associate professor at the Institute of Physics of SSU.
According to him, when taking blood for analysis, only a few cancer cells from a patient with oncology will get into a standard large test tube, and if the circumstances are unfortunate, they may not get there at all. The studies were carried out on laboratory rats: they were connected to the developed installation in such a way that part of the blood from the artery was removed by catheters to an external sterile cell, and then returned to the vein.
As the scientists explained, medical machines for hemodialysis work in a similar way. According to them, the laboratory prototype of the installation allows observing extraneous rare objects in this cell in the flow of undiluted blood, as well as isolating them from the flow using a magnetic separator.
At this stage, according to the researchers, the main direction of practical application of the new cytometer is the use for scientific research of various processes in the blood, for example, the spread of cancer cells from the main tumor and the formation of metastases.
For specialists in thrombosis, it is of interest to study the early embryos of blood clots from several cells glued together. This method can also potentially be used to search for and extract various pathogens, for example, in acute blood poisoning.
"This technology has a number of analogues, mainly developed in the USA and the UK, which can work directly in the blood vessel," said Daniil Bratashov.
However, according to him, the use of an external flow cell allows you to better "see" and separate objects, get more signs of the objects under study.
"If we compare with separators, we are generally on the same level with them, but we can also see objects immediately before separation or in the process," the scientist added.
The development is based on a relatively recently created technology of light sheet microscopy. Currently, scientists continue to refine the system on a number of parameters.
"We are refining the optical system in order to be able to study not only the quantitative features of objects, but also to observe them directly with the naked eye (as in a microscope). In addition, we continue to develop software to make it as convenient as possible for the user (biologist or medical researcher), who could, without understanding deeply into technology, simply get images of foreign objects in the bloodstream, calculate their statistics and group these objects with a large number of them," the SSU scientist added.
The direction in which this research is carried out is included in the strategic project of Saratov State University "Technologies of Personalized Medicine" of the Priority 2030 program.
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