A NANO-SIZED claw inspired by the Venus flytrap can grab bacteria from infected blood.
When harmful bacteria enter the bloodstream they can quickly multiply, causing life-threatening diseases like sepsis. Antibiotics can clean out the system, yet resistance is increasing. Infected blood can also be passed through a dialysis machine, catching the bugs in a filter. But fast-flowing blood sometimes pulls captured bacteria back into the stream.
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So Tie Wang at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and his colleagues made a claw-like filter that grabs passing bacteria. It is covered with bendy nanowires tipped with lectin 鈥� a protein that binds to carbohydrates such as the sugars bacteria have on their surface. The wires stick to and close over the bacteria, trapping them in a delicate cage. Tested on salmonella, the filter snared 97 per cent of the bugs compared with 10 per cent for a normal one (Nature Communications, ). The team says the trick will also work for viruses, cancer cells and even stem cells.
Richard Stabler at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine says it could help when antibiotics fail. 鈥淚t would be hard to develop a resistance to being fished out like this,鈥� he says.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淭iny claws snatch pathogens from blood鈥�
