Abstract
Bacterial infectious diseases, such as sepsis, can lead to impaired function in the lungs, kidneys, and other vital organs. Although established technologies have been designed for the extracorporeal removal of bacteria, a high flow velocity of the true bloodstream might result in low capture efficiency and prevent the realization of their full clinical potential. Here, we develop a dialyzer made by three-dimensional carbon foam pre-grafted with nanowires to isolate bacteria from unprocessed blood. The tip region of polycrystalline nanowires is bent readily to form three-dimensional nanoclaws when dragged by the molecular force of ligand-receptor, because of a decreasing Young’s moduli from the bottom to the tip. The bacterial capture efficiency was improved from ~10% on carbon foam and ~40% on unbendable single-crystalline nanowires/carbon foam to 97% on bendable polycrystalline nanowires/carbon foam in a fluid bloodstream of 10 cm s−1 velocity.
Highlights
Bacterial infectious diseases, such as sepsis, can lead to impaired function in the lungs, kidneys, and other vital organs
Inspired by the natural trapping process of the Venus flytrap, whereby its two lobes open widely and snap shut when stimulated by prey to prevent them from escaping, we describe here an approach to design 3D nanoclaws, improving bacterial capture efficiency in a patient’s bloodstream
Once pathogenic bacteria enter the bloodstream, they begin producing antigens that are recognized by the immune system, triggering systemic inflammation, which can lead to multiorgan system failure, septic shock, and death (Fig. 1a)[22]
Summary
Bacterial infectious diseases, such as sepsis, can lead to impaired function in the lungs, kidneys, and other vital organs. Combining synergistic effects of surface chemistry (specific ligand/receptor recognition) and nanotopography (suitable micro- or nano-topographical interactions), threedimensional (3D) nanostructures, including stiff inorganic materials such as Si nanowires (NWs)[10, 11], TiO2 nanosisal-like[12] and quartz NW arrays[13] and softer materials such as polystyrene nanotubes[14], polypyrrole NWs15, and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microposts[16], have been investigated to capture circulating tumor cells[17] or bacteria[18] These may fail to display an impressive performance in patient’s bloodstream conditions because of the bacteria falling off, driven by the shearing force of fluid bloodstream. Compared to unbendable single-crystalline NWs, such bendable polycrystalline NWs efficiently improve the number of captured bacteria in patient’s bloodstream at various velocities, showing minimal interactions with other blood components
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