Interventional Removal of Travelling Microthrombi Using Targeted Magnetic Microbubble, 2024, Li et al.

Interventional Removal of Travelling Microthrombi Using Targeted Magnetic Microbubble
Yongjian Li; Zujie Gao; Xiaobing Zheng; Yunfan Pan; Jinlong Xu; Yan Li; Haosheng Chen

Microthrombus is one of the major causes of the sequelae of COVID-19 and leads to subsequent embolism and necrosis. Due to their small size and irregular movements, the early detection and efficient removal of microthrombi in vivo remain a great challenge.

In this work, an interventional method is developed to identify and remove the traveling microthrombi using targeted-magneticmicrobubbles (TMMBs) and an interventional magnetic catheter. The thrombus-targeted drugs are coated on the TMMBs and magnetic nanoparticles are shelled inside, which allow not only targeted adhesion onto the traveling microthrombi, but also the effective capture by the magnetic catheter in the vessel.

In the proof-of-concept experiments in the rat models, the concentration of microthrombus is reduced by more than 60% in 3 minutes, without damaging the organs. It is a promising method for treating microthrombus issues.

Link | PDF (Advanced Healthcare Materials)

 

I'll try and work out what ref 13 is, as it's a bit mangled in the pre-press refs list.

 

[13] A Combined Magnetic-Acoustic Device for Simultaneous, Coaligned Application of Magnetic and Ultrasonic Fields (2018, Advanced Materials Technologies)

[14] Multimodal and multifunctional nanoparticles with platelet targeting ability and phase transition efficiency for the molecular imaging and thrombolysis of coronary microthrombi (2020, Biomaterials Science)

 

Fascinating idea. Usually ideas out of China don't make much splash in the west but this paper is out of Tsinghua university which is China's #2 university, based in Beijing and their #1 tech/science university. Think MIT. So it is probably not junk science and could have some impact.

The primary application is acute covid but obviously it would be a good thing for the microclot people to use to test the theory of microclots in long covid.

 

One of the points is that with their methodology they deliberately created microclots (from larger clots so not amyloid style), filtered them to be between 10 and 100 µm and left them in circulation for 30 minutes before removing them from the IVC, or not in the controls. I'll try and post some summary quotes and results later.

 

Rat microthrombus model

(note these are "ordinary" microthrombi, not fibrin-amyloid microclots)

 

Removing microthrombi via interventional catheter

Two stage process: inject TMMBs (targeted magnetic microbubbles) to attach to circulating microthrombi; retrieve via a magnetic-tipped intravascular catheter.

Implying that in this rat model, induced microthrombi in the 10-100 µm range are in circulation for 30 mins.