The Whole Blood Dialysis Device for Cancer Patients Was Invented in the MCI for the Purpose of Diagnosis and Treatment

According to the public relations report of MCI, Dr.Fatemeh Molaabasi, a faculty member in the department of Interdisciplinary Researches in MCI, and the executive of this project, stated: the low number of circulating cancer cells (CTCs) in blood specimens, and the current time-consuming methods being used for the isolation of CTCs for processing a small amount of blood samples is the biggest challenges to use circulating cancer cells; Therefore, our aim for this project was to develop a CTC dialysis system with the ability to process the whole blood of cancer patients in a shorter period of time.

She also stated: In the development of this system, two strategies have been taken into consideration. First, the synthesis of new core-shell Cu ferrites consisting of Cu-CuFe₂O₄ core and MIL-88A shell and coupled with anti-HER2 antibody for effective detection of circulating cancer cells. Second, the construction of a microfluidic platform consisting of a 3D printed scaffold composed of polycaprolactone/Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle composites with pore diameter less than 200 μm, on which a high voltage magnetic field is focused to induce magnetic properties for trapping circulating cancerous cells targeted by magnetic nanoparticles.

Molaabasi also said: The construction of a dialysis device for CTC with therapeutic and diagnostic purposes is reported for the first time in the world. Although, the diagnostic aspect of this device is more significant, and its therapeutic aspects have not been thoroughly assessed so far due to the low volume of obtained blood samples.

At the end, she pointed out: the implementation of this project along with producing technical knowledge and developing a dialysis system for isolating CTCs for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes also led to the registration of a patent as well as the publication of an article in the Q1 journal of 'Analytical Chemistry' with an impact factor of 7.4.