Acoustofluidic system for targeted antibody removal in transplantation: Enabling small-volume therapeutic apheresis
Antibody-mediated rejection is a leading cause of allograft failure and mortality in pediatric solid organ transplant recipients. Current apheresis systems require large blood volumes and are primarily designed for adults, making them unsuitable for children and small animals. These systems often indiscriminately remove both harmful and protective antibodies, increasing the risk of complications such as life-threatening infections. To address this critical need, we developed acoustofluidic-based system for targeted antibody removal in transplantation (A-START). A-START is engineered to handle small blood volumes and has demonstrated efficacy in preclinical small animal trials. In a sensitized rodent skin transplantation model, A-START only demands 240 microliters of blood, selectively removing donor-specific alloantibodies (DSAs) while preserving protective antibodies, such as tetanus antibodies. A-START retains ~95% of beneficial antibodies and achieves a 60% improvement in DSA removal compared to conventional methods. These findings highlight the transformative potential of A-START as a promising, reliable, scalable solution for improving outcomes in pediatric transplantation and treating antibody-mediated diseases.
Authors
- Qian Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4252-1109)
- Jean Kwun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8563-5472)
- Jessica F. Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2663-8438)
- Eileen T. Chambers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7060-9311)
- Kaichun Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6666-4619)
- Nader Abraham (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9679-5642)
- Haojun Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5395-3417)
- Andrew S. Barbas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3476-2313)
- Zhiteng Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4385-4247)
- Ruoyu Zhong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0433-0923)
- Linda Stempora (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5285-0766)
- Mengxi Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0086-5349)
- Luke P. Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1436-4054)
- Jianping Xia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9902-0228)
- Ye He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7363-1063)
- Riley Kahan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7777-4226)
- Tony Jun Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1205-3313)
- Ke Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0243-1811)
- Min Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1427-6721)
- Mingyuan Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9241-7986)
- Brandon Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6438-4074)
- Ke Jin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9225-6470)
- Emeraghi David
- Ying Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4812-7658)
Institutions
- Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Duke University (US)
- Duke Medical Center (US)
- Duke University Hospital (US)
- Sungkyunkwan University (KR)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2025-09-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ady3262
- Primary Topic
- Microfluidic and Bio-sensing Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00