Biomagnetic Determinantion of Transplant Rejection

描述（由申请人提供）：很大比例的器官移植会被免疫系统排斥。排斥反应的症状因器官的不同而不同，但通常需要对移植进行活检以确定是否确实发生了排斥反应。活组织检查是痛苦的，有感染的可能，并且需要随后对活组织进行显微镜检查，看是否有淋巴细胞。急性排斥反应通过几种机制发生，但主要是T细胞的增殖，T细胞附着在供体细胞的HLA抗原上并杀死它们。通过非侵入性生物磁性技术，可以识别移植器官中这些T细胞淋巴细胞的存在，使用引入的磁性纳米颗粒，通过抗体（如CD8+）特异性靶向淋巴细胞，这些抗体附着在它们的配体受体上。灵敏的SQUID磁传感器可以通过磁化纳米颗粒并随后测量其剩余场来检测少量这些标记细胞的存在。这种方法可用于监测移植的状态，以了解化疗的效果，并减少活检的需要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A significant percentage of organ transplants are rejected by the immune system. Symptoms of rejection vary depending upon the organ but a biopsy of the transplant is normally required to ascertain that rejection is indeed happening. Biopsies are painful, introduce the possibility of infection, and require subsequent microscopic inspection of the biopsy tissue for lymphocytes. Acute rejection occurs through several mechanisms, but is dominated by multiplication of T cells which attach to HLA antigens on the donor cells and kill them. It is possible to identify the presence of these T cell lymphocytes in the transplanted organ by non-invasive biomagnetic techniques using introduced magnetic nanoparticles specifically targeted to lymphocytes by antibodies, such as CD8+, which attach to their ligand receptors. Sensitive SQUID magnetic sensors can detect the presence of small amounts of these labeled cells by magnetizing the nanoparticles and subsequent measurement of their remanence fields. This methodology can be used to monitor the status of a transplant for the effects of chemotherapy as well as reduce the need for biopsies.