http://www.lematin.ch/health-environment/health/cure-magnetique-cleaner-sang/story/17770367

Researchers have developed an external apparatus capable of cleaning the blood of pathogens with magnets. This discovery represents a promise of new treatment for sepsis or infectious diseases.

The apparatus, which mimics the spleen, has for the moment been tested only in rats and not in humans. It uses nanoscopic magnetic beads (less than one millimetre) covered with a genetically designed human blood protein called MBL.

The MBL protein binds to pathogens and toxins, which can then be «extracts» blood from magnetic nanobeads that behave like tiny magnets. Once cleaned, the blood is reintroduced without changing its composition or clotting.

The invention developed by American researchers is intended to treat blood infections that affect 18 million people worldwide each year with a percentage of deaths of 30 to 50%. Microbes, which are the cause, are often resistant to antibiotics.