Processing blood

1. A method of processing blood, said method comprising the steps of:

obtaining blood from a patient coupled to a single blood processing device to form a closed loop between said patient and said blood processing device;

collecting bulk mononuclear blood cells from said blood by leukapheresis implemented using said blood processing device in said closed loop;

enriching concurrently target cells separated from non-target cells in said bulk mononuclear blood cells using said blood processing device in said closed loop and;

modifying said enriched target cells, wherein said modification is selected from the group consisting of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) activation; T regulatory cell (Treg) activation and genetically modified blood cells protected from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in said closed loop.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the step of discarding said non-target cells.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising maintaining continuous connection of said patient in said closed loop during processing of said target cells.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the step of disconnecting said patient from said closed loop for a time interval during processing of said target cells.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the step of concurrently monitoring said collecting and enriching steps.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said collecting and enriching steps are performed in different sections of said blood processing device.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said collecting step comprises using differential centrifugation to collect said mononuclear blood cells and said enriching step comprises using ligand capture to enrich said target cells.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein said differential centrifugation is conducted by a continuous flow system.

9. The method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein said ligand is an antibody specific for a cell surface ligand.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the cell surface ligand is selected from the group consisting of epithelial cell adhesion molecules (EpCAM), selectins, adhesion molecule receptors, homing receptors, cytokine receptors, chemokine receptors, and enzymes.

11. The method as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the cell surface ligand is a cluster designation (CD) antigen.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the CD antigen is selected from the group consisting of CD1a, CD4, CD8, CD14, CD25, CD34, CD133, and CD143.

13. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said target cells are selected from the group consisting of B cells, T cells, dendritic cells, monocytes, neutrophils, natural killer (NK) cells, T regulatory cells, T-helper cells, cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), hematopoietic progenitor cells, endothelial cells, epithelial cells, mesenchymal cells, lymphocytes, lymphokine-activated killer cells (LAKs), and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs).

14. The method as claimed in claim 13 , wherein said hematopoietic progenitor cells and said hematopoietic stem cells are enriched.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14 , wherein said hematopoietic stem cells and said hematopoietic progenitor cells are positive for at least one of CD34, CD133, and CD143.

16. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said target cells are selected from the group consisting of malignant cells from blood, malignant cells from tissue, virally infected cells, bacterially infected cells, at least one virus, at least one bacterium, a parasite, fetal cells, and pathogenic effector cells.

17. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the step of returning non-target cells to the patient connected or disconnected in said closed loop.

18. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the step of modifying non-target cells and returning said non-target cells to the patient connected or disconnected in said closed loop.

19. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein target cell enrichment is effected by at least one of magnetics, fluorescent-activated cell sorting, microfluidics, solid support, acoustics, bioluminescence, antibody tagging, and enzyme substrate.

20. The method as claimed in claim 19 , wherein said particle is selected from the group consisting of a magnetic particle and a density modified particle.