A White Blood Cell Capturing Biochip Using a 3D Trapping Architecture

Author(s):  
Anurag Tripathi ◽  
Nikos Chronis

White blood cells (WBCs) and their subtypes are important constituents of the human immune system as their concentration, quantified by a WBC count test, indicates the state of body’s immune response against infections. These cell count tests are important prognostic and diagnostic indicators for a number of human immunological diseases, most prominent of them being AIDS (1).

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Yitang Sun ◽  
Jingqi Zhou ◽  
Kaixiong Ye

Increasing evidence shows that white blood cells are associated with the risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but the direction and causality of this association are not clear. To evaluate the causal associations between various white blood cell traits and the COVID-19 susceptibility and severity, we conducted two-sample bidirectional Mendelian Randomization (MR) analyses with summary statistics from the largest and most recent genome-wide association studies. Our MR results indicated causal protective effects of higher basophil count, basophil percentage of white blood cells, and myeloid white blood cell count on severe COVID-19, with odds ratios (OR) per standard deviation increment of 0.75 (95% CI: 0.60–0.95), 0.70 (95% CI: 0.54–0.92), and 0.85 (95% CI: 0.73–0.98), respectively. Neither COVID-19 severity nor susceptibility was associated with white blood cell traits in our reverse MR results. Genetically predicted high basophil count, basophil percentage of white blood cells, and myeloid white blood cell count are associated with a lower risk of developing severe COVID-19. Individuals with a lower genetic capacity for basophils are likely at risk, while enhancing the production of basophils may be an effective therapeutic strategy.


Author(s):  
Thanh Tran ◽  
Lam Binh Minh ◽  
Suk-Hwan Lee ◽  
Ki-Ryong Kwon

Clinically, knowing the number of red blood cells (RBCs) and white blood cells (WBCs) helps doctors to make the better decision on accurate diagnosis of numerous diseases. The manual cell counting is a very time-consuming and expensive process, and it depends on the experience of specialists. Therefore, a completely automatic method supporting cell counting is a viable solution for clinical laboratories. This paper proposes a novel blood cell counting procedure to address this challenge. The proposed method adopts SegNet - a deep learning semantic segmentation to simultaneously segment RBCs and WBCs. The global accuracy of the segmentation of WBCs, RBCs, and the background of peripheral blood smear images obtains 89% when segment WBCs and RBCs from the background of blood smear images. Moreover, an effective solution to separate grouped or overlapping cells and cell count is presented using Euclidean distance transform, local maxima, and connected component labeling. The counting result of the proposed procedure achieves an accuracy of 93.3% for red blood cell count using dataset 1 and 97.38% for white blood cell count using dataset 2.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yitang Sun ◽  
Jingqi Zhou ◽  
Kaixiong Ye

AbstractBackgroundThe pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has rapidly emerged to seriously threaten public health. We aimed to investigate whether white blood cell traits have potential causal effects on severe COVID-19 using Mendelian randomization (MR).MethodsTo evaluate the causal associations between various white blood cell traits and severe COVID-19, we conducted a two-sample MR analysis with summary statistics from recent large genome-wide association studies.ResultsOur MR results indicated potential causal associations of white blood cell count, myeloid white blood cell count, and granulocyte count with severe COVID-19, with odds ratios (OR) of 0.84 (95% CI: 0.72-0.98), 0.81 (95% CI: 0.70-0.94), and 0.84 (95% CI: 0.71-0.99), respectively. Increasing eosinophil percentage of white blood cells was associated with a higher risk of severe COVID-19 (OR: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.03-1.45).ConclusionsOur results suggest the potential causal effects of lower white blood cell count, lower myeloid white blood cell count, lower granulocyte count, and higher eosinophil percentage of white blood cells on an increased risk of severe COVID-19.


2022 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 117693512110699
Author(s):  
Gedam Derbew Addisia ◽  
Awoke Seyoum Tegegne ◽  
Denekew Bitew Belay ◽  
Mitiku Wale Muluneh ◽  
Mahider Abere Kassaw

Background: Leukemia is a type of cancers that start in the bone marrow and produce a serious number of abnormal white blood cells. Bleeding and bruising problems, fatigue, fever, and an increased risk of infection are among symptoms of the disease. The main objective of this study is to identify the determinant of the progression rate of white blood cells among patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia at Felege Hiwot Referral Hospital (FHRH), Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. Methods: A retrospective study design was conducted on 312 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia at FHRH, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia under treatment from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2019. A linear mixed-effects model was considered for the progression of the white blood cell data. Results: The estimated coefficient of the fixed effect intercept was 84.68, indicating that the average white blood cell (WBC) count of the patients was 84.68 at baseline time by excluding all covariates in the model ( P-value <.001). Male sex ( β = 2.92, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.58, 0.5.25), age ( β = .17, 95% CI 0.08, 0.28), widowed/divorced marital status ( β = 3.30, 95% CI 0.03, 6.57), medium chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) stage ( β = −4.34, 95% CI −6.57, −2.68), high CLL stage ( β = −2.76, 95% CI −4.86, −0.67), hemoglobin ( β = .15, 95% CI 0.07, 0.22), platelet ( β = .09, 95% CI 0.02, 0.17), lymphocytes ( β = .16, 95% CI 0.03, 0.29), red blood cell (RBC) ( β = .17, 95% CI 0.09, 0.25), and follow-up time ( β = .27, 95% CI 0.19, 0.36) were significantly associated with the average WBC count of chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients. Conclusions: The finding showed that age, sex, lymphocytic, stage of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, marital status, platelet, hemoglobin, RBC, and follow-up time were significantly associated with the average WBC count of chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients. Therefore, health care providers should give due attention and prioritize those identified factors and give frequent counseling about improving the health of chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients.


Blood ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 122 (21) ◽  
pp. 1705-1705
Author(s):  
Pauline D Balkaransingh ◽  
David Wheeler ◽  
Yi Ning ◽  
Marieka A. Helou ◽  
Gita Massey

Abstract Introduction White blood cells are key components of the immune system. They defend the body against a host of diseases and infections. Various studies have explored the possible influence of dietary nutrients on the white blood cell (WBC) count. If it can be demonstrated that nutrients affect the WBC count, they may offer an inexpensive way of modulating the immune system and in turn, the body's ability to fight against disease and infection. The sample sizes of previous studies, however, have been relatively small. The results have therefore been variable and conflicting. The purpose of this study is to continue to explore the dietary determinants of the WBC count, using a database that allows for a larger sample size, the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Health Survey (NHANES). Methods The main outcome variable, WBC count, was recoded to the normal range for ages ≥ 18 years, of 4-11(±2). This was done in order to account for extreme values; particularly high and low values secondary to disease or infection. The population means and 95% confidence intervals were obtained using the statistical weights for the key variables of interest (Table 1). Multiple linear regression and backward elimination were used to predict the final model (Table 2). Variables with p < 0.1 were kept in the model. SAS 9.3 was used for all statistical analyses. Results Associations for age, gender, race and Body Mass Index (BMI) and WBC count, were consistent with previous studies and were all statistically significant (p< 0.0001). It has been shown that more intense physical activity usually leads to an increase in the WBC count. In this study, however, more vigorous forms of activity were associated with a lower WBC count (p < 0.0001). Increases in dietary copper and iron were associated with a subsequent decrease in the WBC count (Table 2, p < 0.05). An increase in vitamin K was also associated with a decrease in WBC count, however, it was not statistically significant (Table 2, p > 0.05). Increases in vitamin B1 were associated with an increase in WBC count (p < 0.05). Conclusion The results of this study suggest that further prospective studies are needed to investigate the role of these nutrients as determinants of the WBC count. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (Supplement_4) ◽  
pp. 291-292
Author(s):  
Elle Rottman ◽  
Alisun N Watson ◽  
Catherine Buck ◽  
Tsungcheng Tsai ◽  
Jeffery J Chewning ◽  
...  

Abstract Complete blood cell counts have been used as a diagnostic tool across many animal species including swine. To investigate the factors that cause variation in complete blood cell count results, a total of 2,284 whole blood samples were collected from 2012 to 2019 in preweaning piglets (n = 518), nursery pigs (n = 1,704), and grower pigs (n = 60). Whole blood was collected into K2EDTA blood collection tubes and assayed using an automatic hematologic analyzer within 6 hours of collection. Data were analyzed by Mixed procedure of SAS with gender, parity group, and farrowing season as fixed effects. Body weight and age of pigs served as covariances. Farrowing season was grouped into summer (born during May to October) or winter (or November to April). Pigs that were born from first, second, and third parity, and four and above parity sows were assorted into parity group 1, 2 to 3, and 4+, respectively. Barrows had a greater concentration of total white blood cells (P &lt; 0.01), lymphocytes (P &lt; 0.01), and neutrophils (P &lt; 0.01) compared to gilts. Barrows had lower mean corpuscular volume (P = 0.03), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (P &lt; 0.01), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (P = 0.02) compared to gilts. Pigs that were farrowed in the winter season had a greater concentration of white blood cells (P = 0.01), neutrophils (P = 0.01), and the percentage of neutrophils (P = 0.03), but were lower in the percentage of lymphocytes (P = 0.03) compared to pigs farrowed during summer. Pigs born to parity four and above sows obtained a greater lymphocyte count (P = 0.01), percentage of neutrophils (P = 0.02), and percentage of lymphocytes (P = 0.01). We concluded that peripheral complete blood cells count results were affected by gender, farrowing season, and sow parity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 25-43
Author(s):  
William de Jesús Ríos-Ríos ◽  
Jair Aguilar-Cruz

The human immune system has evolvedtoachieveahighlyefficient, specialized and specific immunity against particular molecular structures of each pathogenic microorganism and to develop mechanisms allowing to respond more quickly and efficiently to subsequent encounters with the same invading agent: the adaptive immune response. This paper describes the connection between the innate and adaptive immune response, as well as the cellular and humoral mechanisms of control and long-term protection of the adaptive immune response.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Raphael Ayivi ◽  
Salam Ibrahim ◽  
Heather Colleran ◽  
Roberta Silva ◽  
Leonard Williams ◽  
...  

The human immune system is the first line of defense in the prevention of viruses and diseases, and several immune response mechanisms are engaged at the onset of a pathogenic attack. In this review, we elucidate the human immune system as a critical element in protecting humans from COVID-19 by describing the immune process, explaining how the immune system functions, and highlighting the immune system’s global importance in fighting infections. Potential challenges that limit the  proper functioning of the immune system are also discussed. In addition, we address the impact of nutrition on boosting the body’s defenses against COVID-19. For example, some foods and active compounds from food ingredients have been suggested as a way to strengthen the immune system. Physical exercise has also been encouraged as an important way to support the immune response to viral infections. The aim of this review is thus to outline holistic self-defense immunity mechanisms that can help to reduce the risk of viral infections in humans. This review could therefore be used as a comprehensive resource for educating consumers and the general public about measures that can enhance the body’s immune support system as we continue to fight COVID-19 and its variants.Keywords: Immunity, Covid-19 COVID-19, Nutrition, Bioactive compounds, Food Ingredients


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