Saving on blood
Nanoparticles will reduce the cost and increase the accuracy of blood tests
Materials scientists of NUST MISIS, together with colleagues from the Faculty of Chemistry of Lomonosov Moscow State University, have developed a technology that makes it possible to make the processes of sampling, storage and transportation of blood samples and biological fluids in medicine and veterinary medicine simpler, more reliable and cheaper.
Today, two approaches are used for the transportation of blood and biological fluids in medicine and veterinary medicine: the transportation of liquid samples directly and the preparation of dry preparations with further restoration of the solution. Test tube syringes are used to transport liquid samples. They require special transportation and storage conditions: containers in which samples are stored at low temperatures, often frozen. The time for their delivery is usually limited. In case of possible violation of temperature or time conditions of delivery and storage, blood samples change their properties, the results of the analysis are incorrect.
Another way is to use a dry sample for analysis. To do this, a few drops of blood are applied to special cellulose cards and dried. This method is difficult to use, first of all, because such cellulose cards are not produced in our country. In addition, special expensive equipment is required for the analysis of a dry drug, which is not available in every clinic. "Due to the complex structure of cellulose, blood is unevenly distributed on the carrier, in addition, it is sorbed by the material, and this greatly distorts the results," notes senior researcher at the Department of Functional Nanosystems of NUST MISIS, Candidate of Chemical Sciences Associate Professor Alexander Osipov.
Russian scientists solved the problem by replacing cellulose, from which sampling cards are made, with a specially prepared porous inorganic material containing metal nanoparticles.
Sample of the blood sampling card. Photo: NUST MISIS press service
The developers managed to choose the composition and shape of the absorber in such a way that the blood was distributed evenly throughout the volume, and the degree of sorption was minimal, so that when flushed from the sampler card, the analyzed blood components almost completely passed into the solution.
On the new material, the modified samples dry out about 2 times faster, which significantly speeds up the sample preparation process. The advantage of the new material is that there is no need to use special containers for transportation: a simple paper envelope is enough. The delivery process is much easier and cheaper compared to the use of containers and special vehicles.
NUST MISIS notes that the cost of the card itself, even with manual small-scale wholesale production, is five times lower than the industrial imported cellulose analog: 40 rubles against 180 rubles. When switching to large-scale production, the price will decrease.
The creators of the technology patented it and decided to concentrate on veterinary diagnostics for now. In this area, there is a constant need to conduct hundreds of thousands of analyses, and there are usually no conditions for this on livestock farms, especially located in remote areas. The developers expect to start mass production of sampling media by the end of 2017 after completion of testing and certification procedures.
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17.05.2017