Engineers at Duke University have developed a device “Virtual Column” separates & settles blood-based nanoparticles that uses sound waves to separate and sort out the molecules found in blood within minutes. The technology is based on a concept called “virtual pillar” and can be helpful for scientific research and medical applications.
Cells in the body produce small vesicles called “small extracellular vesicles” (sEVs) and are thought to play an important role in cell-to-cell communication and disease transmission. The new technology, called Acoustic Nanoscale Separation by Wave-pillar Excitation Resonance, or answer for short, not only extracts these nanoparticles from biofluids in less than 10 minutes, but also keeps them in ‘types of size believe that they have different biological functions.
The results were published online Nov. 23 in the journal Science Advances.
“These nanoparticles have great potential in medical research and treatment, but the current technology to separate and prepare them takes hours or days, is inconsistent, produces low yields or purity, suffer from contamination, and sometimes damage. nanoparticles,” said Tony Jun Huang. William Bevan Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke.
“We want to make producing and processing high-quality sEVs as easy as pressing a button and getting the samples you need faster than it takes to take a shower,” Huang said.
Recent research shows that sEVs have many small segments with different sizes (for example, less than 50 nanometers, between 60 and 80 nanometers, and between 90 and 150 nanometers). Each scale is thought to contain different organisms.
The recent discovery of the population of SEV has excited researchers because of their potential to revolutionize research fields that are not good, such as the early diagnosis of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. But those things have yet to find their way into the clinical setting.
Huang says this is largely due to the difficulties associated with separating and isolating these small nano-sEVs. To meet this challenge, Huang, doctoral student Jinxin Zhang, and collaborators from UCLA, Harvard, and the Magee-Womens Research Institute developed a response system.
The device uses a pair of transducers to produce vertical sound waves that cover a narrow, closed channel filled with water. This sound “falls” into the fluid medium through the wall of the channel and interacts with the first sound wave. With the careful design of wall thickness, channel size and sound volume, this conversation creates a resonance that forms a “virtual pillar” near the center of the channel.
Each of these columns is actually a semi-parallel area of high stress. When the objects try to pass through the columns, they are pushed against the edge of the channel. The bigger the debris, the greater the push. By changing the structure of the pillars to create nuanced energy and moving nanoparticles, researchers can organize them precisely by size into different groups determined by the needs of the experiment going on face.
EV Fractionation Technology is the most advanced technology for accurate EV fractionation, and will have a significant impact on the landscape of EV diagnosis, prognostics and liquid biopsy,” said David Wong, director of the UCLA Center for Oral/Head & Neck Oncology Research.
In the new paper, the researchers showed that their solution platform was able to classify sEVs into three subclasses with 96% accuracy for nanoparticles at the broad end of the spectrum and 80% accuracy for the largest small. They also show flexibility in their process, adjusting the number of collections and proportions and simple updates to the sound quality. Each test takes only 10 minutes, while other methods such as ultra-centrifugation can take hours or days.
“Due to its non-contact nature, ANSWER provides a suitable method for the separation of living nanoparticles.” Zhang said. “Unlike traditional filter systems, which have wide separation zones, ANSWER provides a reliable method for separation at the nanoscale, and the separation diameter can be adjusted precisely by changing the acoustic power of the room meeting.”
In the future, researchers will continue to improve the ANSWER technology so that it can be effective in the purification of other important nanoparticles such as viruses, bacteria and proteins.
